V 


FEB  21  1914 


&, 


'2L0BKH.&* 


*& 


BL  80  .T69  1913 

Toy,  Crawford  Howell,  1836- 

1919. 
Introduction  to  the  history 

of  ro  1  i  rri  nr\ci 


A  SERIES  OF  HANDBOOKS  ON 
THE   HISTORY  OF   RELIGIONS 


Edited  by  MORRIS  JASTROW,  Jr. 

Professor  of  Semitic  Languages  in  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania 

The  following  volumes  are  now  ready : 

/.    THE  RELIGIONS  OF  INDIA 

By  Edward  Washburn  Hopkins,  Professor  of 
Sanskrit  and  Comparative  Philology  in  Vale  Univer- 
sity.   Svo,  cloth,  xviii+612  pages,  32.00. 

//.    THE  RELIGION  OF  BABYLONIA  AND 
ASSYRIA 
By    Morris   Jastrow,   Jr.,    Professor   of    Semitic 
Languages  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania.    Svo, 
cloth,  xiv+780  pages,  S3.00. 

///.    THE  RELIGION  OF  THE  TEUTONS 

By  P.  D.  Chantepie  de  la  Saussaye,  Professor 
in  the  University  of  Leiden.  Translated  by  Bert  J. 
Vos,  Associate  Professor  of  German  in  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University.  Svo,  cloth,  viii  +  504  pages,  $2.50. 

IV.  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  HISTORY  OF 
RELIGIONS 
By  Crawford  Howell  Toy,  Professor  Emeritus 
of  Hebrew  and  other  Oriental  Languages  in  Harvard 
University.    8vo,  cloth,  xix-f639  pages,  S3.00. 

GINN    AND    COMPANY   Publishers 


HANDBOOKS 


HISTORY    OF    RELIGIONS 


EDITED    BY 


MORRIS    JASTROW,  Jr.,  Ph.D. 

Professor  of  Semitic  Languages  in  the 
University  of  Pennsylvariia 


Volume   IV 


Ibanoboofcs  on  tbe  Ibtston?  of  IReltctfons 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE 

HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


BY 


CRAWFORD  HOWELL  TOY 

Professor  Emeritus  in  Harvard  University 


GINN  AND  COMPANY 

BOSTON  •  NEW  YORK  •  CHICAGO  •  LONDON 


COPYRIGHT,   I913,  BY 
CRAWFORD  HOWELL  TOY 


ALL   RKiHTS    RESERVED 
513.IO 


GINN  AND  COMPANY-  PRO- 
PRIETORS •  BOSTON  •  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

The  object  of  this  volume  is  to  describe  the  principal  customs 
and  ideas  that  underlie  all  public  religion ;  the  details  are  selected 
from  a  large  mass  of  material,  which  is  increasing  in  bulk  year  by 
year.  References  to  the  higher  religions  are  introduced  for  the 
purpose  of  illustrating  lines  of  progress. 

The  analytic  table  of  contents  and  the  index  are  meant  to  sup- 
plement each  other,  the  one  giving  the  outline  of  the  discussion, 
the  other  giving  the  more  important  particulars  ;  the  two  together 
will  facilitate  the  consultation  of  the  book.  In  the  selected  list  of 
works  of  reference  the  titles  are  arranged,  as  far  as  possible,  in 
chronological  order,  so  as  to  indicate  in  a  general  way  the  progress 
of  investigation  in  the  subjects  mentioned. 

My  thanks  are  due  to  the  publishers  for  the  care  they  have  taken 
in  the  printing  of  the  volume,  and  to  their  proofreaders,  particularly 
to  the  chief  proofreader,  for  not  a  few  helpful  suggestions. 

C.  H.  T. 

Cambridge,  Massachusetts 


CONTENTS 

(The  Arabic  figures  in  the  chapter  summaries  refer  to  paragraphs) 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  I.    NATURE  OF  RELIGION i 

Science  and  religion  coeval,  i  ;  Man's  sense  of  dependence  on  mysteri 
ous  Powers,  2  ;  Early  man's  feeling  toward  them  of  a  mixed  nature,  3 
mainly  selfish,  4  ;  Prominence  of  fear,  6  ;  Conception  of  natural  law,  7 
Sense  of  an  extrahuman  Something,  9;  Universality  of  religion,  10 
Its  development  parallel  to  that  of  social  organization,  12;  Unitary 
character  of  human  life,  14  ;  External  religion,  15  ;  Internal  religion,  16. 

CHAPTER  II.    THE  SOUL 10 

Nature  of  the  Soul.  Universal  belief  in  an  interior  something,  18; 
its  basis,  19  ;  from  observation  of  breath,  21  ;  of  shadow,  22  ;  of  blood, 
23 ;  Its  form  a  sublimated  double  of  the  corporeal  man,  24 ;  or  of  an 
animal,  25;  The  seat  of  the  soul,  26;  Localization  of  qualities,  27; 
Consequences  of  the  soul's  leaving  the  body,  29  ;  The  hidden  soul,  31. 
Origin  of  the  Soul.  Not  investigated  by  savages,  32;  Creation  of 
man,  33  ;  Theories  of  birth,  34  ;  Divine  origin  of  the  soul,  36 ;  Mysteri- 
ousness  of  death,  38. 

Polypsychism.  Early  views  of  the  number  and  functions  of  souls, 
39  ;  Civilized  views,  43. 

Future  of  the  Soul.  Belief  in  its  death,  46;  This  belief  tran- 
sient, 51-53;  Dwellingplace  of  the  surviving  soul  in  human  beings, 
beasts,  plants,  or  inanimate  objects,  55-59;  or  near  its  earthly  abode, 
60-63 ;  or  in  some  remote  place  in  earth,  sea,  or  sky,  64-66 ;  or  in  an 
underground  world,  67-69  ;  Occupations  of  the  dead,  70  ;  Retribution 
in  the  Underworld,  71;  Nonmoral  distinctions,  72-75;  Moral  retri- 
bution, savage,  76-78  ;  Civilized,  79-80  ;  Local  separation  of  the  good 
from  the  bad,  81  ;  Reward  and  punishment,  Hindu,  82  ;  Egyptian,  S3; 
Greek,  84  ;  Jewish  and  Christian,  85,  S6  ;  Purgatory,  S7  ;  Resurrection, 
88-90. 

Powers  of  the  Separated  Soul.  Prayers  for  the  dead,  95,  96. 
Genesis  of  Spirits.  Functions  of  spirits  (souls  of  nonhuman  ob- 
jects), 97-100. 

ix 


x  INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

PAGE 

CHAPTERIII.    EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES    ....     48 

Predominance  of  ceremonies  in  early  religious  life,  101,  102  ;  They  are 
communal,  103  ;  and  sacred,  104. 

Emotional  and  Dramatic  Ceremonies.  Religious  dances  and  plays, 
106-108;  Connected  with  the  worship  of  gods,  109;  Are  means  of 
religious  culture,  no;  Processions,  in;  Circumambulation,  112; 
Magical  potency,  113. 

Decorative  and  Curative  Ceremonies.  Decoration  of  the  body, 
1  1  l-i  18;  of  houses,  119;  of  official  dress,  120;  Symbolism  in  decora- 
tion, 121. 

ECONOMIC  Ceremonies.  Propitiation  of  hunted  animals,  122-125; 
Taboos,  126  ;  Rules  about  eating,  127-128;  Magical  means  of  procur- 
ing food,  129-131  ;  Use  of  blood,  132  ;  to  fertilize  soil,  133;  Sacrifice 
of  first-born  animals,  including  children,  134;  Raising  and  housing 
crops,  135;  Rain,  136;  Survivals  in  civilized  times,  137. 
Apotropaic  Ceremonies.  Early  methods,  138-139;  Expulsion  of 
spirits,  140-141  ;  Transference  of  evil,  142,  143;  Expulsion  by  sacrifice, 
144;  The  massing  of  such  observances,  145. 

Ceremonies  of  Puberty  and  Initiation.  Training  of  the  young, 
146;  Tests  of  endurance,  147;  Seclusion  of  girls,  148;  Rearrange- 
ment of  taboos,  149  ;  Supernatural  machinery,  150;  Mutilation  of  the 
body,  151,  152;  Circumcision  of  males,  its  wide  diffusion,  153;  not  a 
test  of  endurance,  154;  nor  hygienic,  155;  nor  to  get  rid  of  magical 
dangers,  156;  nor  to  increase  procreative  power,  157;  not  religious 
in  origin:  not  a  form  of  phallic  worship,  15S;  nor  a  sacrifice,  159,  160; 
nor  a  provision  for  reincarnation,  161  ;  Circumcision  of  females,  162; 
Object  of  circumcision  probably  increase  of  sensual  enjoyment,  163, 
164;  The  symbolical  interpretation,  165-16S;  Ceremonies  of  initiation 
to  secure  union  with  the  clan,  169  ;  Feigned  resurrection  of  the  initiate, 
170;  The  lonely  vision,  171;  Instruction  of  youth,  172,  173;  Ini- 
tiation into  secret  societies,  174. 

Marriage  Ceremonies.  Simple  forms,  176-178;  The  bride  hid- 
ing, 179;  Prenuptial  defloration,  1S0;  Introduction  of  a  supernatural 
element,  1S1  ;  View  that  all  marriage-ceremonies  are  essentially 
religious,  182. 

Ceremonies  at  Birth.  Parental  care,  184;  The  couvade,  185;  Child 
regarded  as  a  reincarnation,  186;  Ablutions  and  naming,  187;  Child 
regarded  as  child  of  God,  188. 

Burial  Ceremonies.  Natural  grief,  189;  Propitiation  of  the  dead 
by  offerings  at  grave,  190  ;  Ban  of  silence,  191  ;  The  dead  regarded  as 
powerful.  192;   Social  value  of  these  ceremonies,  193. 


CONTENTS  xi 


Ceremonies  of  Purification  and  Consecration.  Occasions  of 
purification,  194-196;  Methods:  by  water,  sand,  etc.,  197-199;  by  sac- 
rifice, 200;  Purification  of  a  whole  community,  201;  Consecration  of 
private  and  official  persons,  202,  203 ;  Fasting,  204 ;  its  origin  ;  205- 
207  ;  its  religious  effects,  208  ;  Result  of  massing  these  ceremonies,  209. 
Ceremonies  connected  with  Seasons  and  Periods.  Calendars, 
210,  211;  Lunar  festivals,  212-214;  Solar  festivals,  215;  Solstitial 
and  stellar  festivals,  216;  Importance  of  agricultural  festivals,  217; 
Joyous,  218;  Licentious,  219;  Offering  of  first  fruits,  220;  Sadness, 
221  ;  The  eating  of  sacred  food,  222  ;  Long  periods,  223  ;  Social  value 
of  these  ceremonies,  224. 

CHAPTER  IV.    EARLY  CULTS 99 

Savage  treatment  of  superhuman  Powers  discriminating,  225-228; 
Charms  and  fetish  objects,  229,  230;  Life-force  (mana),  231-233  ;  not 
an  object  of  worship,  but  enters  into  alliance  with  religion,  234,  235; 
Nature  of  sacredness,  236,  237;  Luck,  238;  The  various  objects  of 
worship,  239,  240. 

Animals.  Their  social  relations  with  men,  241,  242;  Transforma- 
tion and  transmigration,  243  ;  Two  attitudes  of  men  toward  animals, 
244-248;  What  animals  are  revered,  249,  250;  Regarded  as  incarna- 
tions of  gods  or  of  spirits,  251  ;  Those  sacred  to  gods  generally  repre- 
sent old  beast-cults,  252,  253  ;  Survivals  of  reverence  for  animals,  254  ; 
Beasts  as  creators,  255,  256;  Worship  rarely  offered  them,  257,  258; 
Coalescence  of  beast-cults  with  other  religious  observances,  259; 
Whether  animals  ever  became  anthropomorphic  deities,  260  ;  Histori- 
cal significance  of  beast-cults,  261. 

Plants.  Their  economic  role,  262-264 ;  Held  to  possess  souls,  265 ; 
Their  relations  with  men  friendly  and  unfriendly,  266,  267  ;  Sacred 
trees,  268,  269;  Deification  of  soma,  270;  Whether  corn-spirits  have 
been  deified,  271  ;  Sacred  trees  by  shrines,  272  ;  Their  connection  with 
totem  posts,  273  ;  Blood-kinship  between  men  and  trees,  274,  275  ;  The 
cosmic  tree,  276;  Divinatory  function  of  trees,  277;  Relation  of  tree- 
spirits  to  gods,  278-285. 

Stones  and  Mountains.  Stones  alive  and  sacred,  2S6-288  ;  have 
magical  powers,  2S9,  290  ;  Relation  between  divine  stones  and  gods, 
291-295;  Magna  Mater,  291;  Massebas,  293;  Bethels,  294;  Stones 
cast  on  graves,  and  boundary  stones,  296;  Stones  as  altars:  natural 
forms,  297  ;  artificial  forms,  298  ;  High  pillars  by  temples,  299  ;  Images 
of  gods,  300,  301  ;  Folk-stories  and  myths  connected  with  stones,  302  ; 
Sacred  mountains,  303-305. 


xii        INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


WATERS.    Why  waters  are  regarded  as  sacred,  306-30S ;  Ritual  use 
of  water,  309;   Water-spirits,   310,  311;   Water-gods,   312-314;  Rain- 
giving  gods.  315;   Water-myths,  316;  Gods  of  ocean,  317. 
Fire.    Its  sacredness,  31S,  319;  Persian  fire-cult,  320;  Ritual  use  of 
fire,  321-323;  Its  symbolic  significance,  324;   Light  as  sacred,  325. 
WIN] »s.    Their  relation  to  gods,  327. 

Heavenly  Bodies.  Anthropomorphized,  328;  Cosmogonic  myths  con- 
nected with  them,  329,  330;  Sex  of  sun  and  moon,  331  ;  Whether  they 
ever  became  gods,  332, 233  ;  Thunder  and  lightning  not  worshiped,  334. 
-MMP  OF  HUMAN  Beings.  Their  worship  widespread,  with  dis- 
tinction between  the  living  and  the  dead,  335. 

Tin.  Cult  <>k  the  Living.  Worship  to  be  distinguished  from  rev- 
erence, 336;  Worship  of  the  living  by  savages,  337;  by  civilized 
peoples,  338  ;  in  Egypt,  339,  340  ;  in  Babylonia,  341  ;  but  there  probably 
not  Semitic,  342  ;  not  by  Hebrews  and  Arabs,  343,  344  ;  in  China, 
345;  in  Japan,  346;  Whether  by  Greeks  and  Romans,  347;  Not  in 
India  and  Persia,  348;  Cults  of  the  living  rarely  important,  349. 
The  Cult  oe  hie  Dead.  Of  historical  persons:  noncivilized, 
351  ;  civilized:  in  Egypt,  352;  in  Greece  and  Rome,  353;  in  China, 
354;  of  the  Calif  Ali,  355;  Greek  and  Roman  worship  of  mythical 
ancestors,  356,  357;  Dedivinization  of  gods,  358;  Euhemerism,  359; 
Worship  of  the  dead  kin,  360,  361  ;  Ghosts  friendly  and  unfriendly, 
362  ;  Savage  customs :  mourning,  363  ;  funeral  feasts,  364 ;  fear  and 
kindly  feeling,  365,  366;  Definite  cult  of  ghosts:  savage,  367-370; 
civilized,  371-373;  Greek  and  Roman  state  cults,  374;  Chinese,  375; 
Divine  functions  of  the  venerated  dead,  376-378;  Ethical  power  of 
ancestor-worship,  379-383. 

Cults  of  Generative  Powers.  Nature's  productivity,  384-386; 
Not  all  customs  connected  with  generation  are  religious,  387  ;  Cult  of 
generative  organs,  388-406 ;  widespread,  38S ;  Nonreligious  usages, 
389,  390  ;  Phallic  cults  hardly  to  be  found  among  the  lowest  peoples, 
391,  392;  Well  developed  in  West  Africa,  393;  in  modern  India, 
394;  in  Japan,  395;  Most  definite  in  some  ancient  civilized  religions, 
396;  In  Egypt,  397;  Whether  in  Semitic  communities,  398;  Hier- 
apolis,  399;  Babylonia  and  Palestine,  400;  Extensively  practiced  in 
Asia  Minor,  Ionia,  and  Greece,  401  ;  Priapos,  402,  403;  The  Roman 
Mutunus  Tutunus,  404;  Phalli  as  amulets,  405;  The  female  organ, 
406  ;  Androgynous  deities,  407-418  ;  Supposed  Semitic  figures  :  Ishtar, 
40S  ;  Ashtart,  409;  Tanit,  410;  The  Cyprian  goddess,  411,  412;  The 
Phrygian  Agdistis,  413;  Hermaphroditos,  415,  416;  Androgynous 
deities  not  religiously  important,  417;  Origin  of  the  conception,  418; 
Animals  associated  with  phallic  deities,  419  ;  Christian  phallic  cults,  420. 


CONTENTS  xm 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  V.    TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO 176 

The  contrasted  roles  of  the  two,  421. 

TotemisxM.  Social  protective  clan  customs,  422  ;  Control  of  marriage 
by  exogamic  organization,  423-428  ;  Theories  of  the  origin  of  exogamy 
(scarcity  of  women,  primitive  promiscuity,  absence  of  sexual  attraction 
between  persons  brought  up  together,  patriarch's  jealousy,  horror  of 
incest,  migration  of  young  men)  and  criticism  of  them,  429-435  ;  Diffu- 
sion and  function  of  exogamy,  436-440;  Definition  of  totemism,  441  ; 
Customs  and  beliefs  associated  with  it,  442  :  exogamy,  443 ;  names 
and  badges,  444-448;  descent  from  the  totem,  449-451;  refusal  to 
kill  or  eat  it,  452-459  ;  magical  ceremonies  for  increasing  supply  of  food, 
460,  461  ;  Stricter  definition  of  totemism,  462-465  ;  Geographical  dis- 
tribution of  totemic  usages,  466-513;  Australia,  468-473;  Torres 
Straits  Islands,  474,  475;  British  New  Guinea,  476;  Melanesia,  477- 
483;  Micronesia  and  Polynesia,  484,  485;  Indonesia,  4S6  ;  India,  487; 
North  America,  4S8-506 ;  Africa,  507-513;  Supposed  traces  in  civil- 
ized peoples,  514-519;  The  permanent  element  in  totemism,  520,  521  ; 
Conditions  favorable  and  unfavorable  to  totemistic  organization,  522  : 
economic,  523-528  ;  individualistic  institutions  (secret  societies,  guar- 
dian spirits),  529-537;  political,  53S ;  religious,  539,  540;  The  lines  of 
progress  to  which  totemism  succumbs,  541. 
Theories  of  the  Origin  of  Totemism,  542-559: 
Individualistic  Theories.  Confusion  between  names  and  things, 
544  ;  Animal  or  plant  held  to  be  the  incarnation  of  a  dead  man, 
545;  Body  of  an  animal  as  magical  apparatus,  546;  Animals  as 
places  of  deposit  of  souls,  547;  An  object  that  influences  a  mother 
at  conception,  of  which  the  child  may  not  eat,  548;  Animals  and 
plants  as  incarnations  of  the  souls  of  the  dead,  549  ;    Criticism,  550- 

552- 

Theories  based  on  Clan  Action.    A  clan  chooses  an  animal  or 

plant  as  friend,  553,  554;  The  totem  a  clan  badge,  555-557  ;  Coopera- 
tion of  groups  to  supply  particular  foods,  558  ;  The  totem  a  god  incar- 
nate in  every  member  of  a  clan,  559  ;  Summing-up  on  origin  of  totemism, 
560-562  ;  Social  function  of  totemism,  563  ;  Whether  it  produced  the 
domestication  of  animals  and  plants,  564-569 ;  Its  relation  to  religion, 
570-580;  The  totem  as  helper,  570-575;  Whether  a  totem  is  ever 
worshiped,  576 ;  or  ever  becomes  a  god,  577-580. 

Taboo.  Its  relation  to  ethics,  581-5S4;  It  has  to  do  with  dangerous 
objects  and  acts,  585,  5S6 ;  Classes  of  taboo  things,  587:  those  con- 
nected with  the  conception  of  life  (parents  and  children),  5SS,  589; 
with  death,  590,  591  ;  with  women  and  the  relation  between  the  sexes, 


xiv      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


592-594  ;  with  great  personages,  595-597  \  with  industrial  pursuits, 
598-600;  with  other  important  social  events  (expulsion  of  spirits, 
sacred  seasons,  war,  etc.),  601-604  ;  with  the  moon:  fear  of  celestial 
phenomena,  605;  observation  of  lunations,  606;  new  moon  and  full 
moon,  607;  Whether  the  Hebrew  sabbath  was  originally  a  full-moon 
day,  60S,  609  ;  The  seven-day  week,  610  ;  Prohibitions  connected  with 
lucky  and  unlucky  days,  611-613;  Punishment  of  violation  of  taboo, 
614,615;  Removal  of  taboos,  616,  617  ;  Taboo  and  magic,  618,  619; 

ration  of  taboo  by  civil  law,  620;    Despotism  of  taboo,  621; 

ion  of  taboo  periods,  622  ;  Diffusion  of  taboo  customs,  623,  624  ; 
Traces  in  ancient  civilized  communities,  625;  Indications  of  former 
general  prevalence,  626,  627  ;  Causes  of  disappearance,  628,  629;  Role 
of  taboo  in  the  history  of  religion,  630-634. 

CHAPTER  VI.   GODS 265 

How   gods  differ    from   other  supernatural   beings,   635,   636;   Early 

mythical  founders  of  culture,  637-643. 

Clan    Gods    (including  divinized    men).    In    lower  tribes,   644-647; 

In  civilized  nations,  648-651  ;  One  class  of  Greek  "  heroes,"  652,  653; 

Historical  importance  of  clan  gods,  654. 

Departmental  Gods.   In  half-civilized  communities,  658-662;  In 

Maya,  Mexican,  and  Peruvian  religions,  663-665;  Among  Egyptians, 

Greeks,  and   Romans,   666-670;    Supposed   Semitic  instances,    671; 

Tutelary  deities  of  individuals,  cities,  and  nations,  672,  673  ;  Classes  of 

departmental  gods,  674  :  Creators,  675-679;  Gods  of  the  other  world, 

6S0-682:  Good  and  bad  Powers,  6S3-694 ;  Conflict  and  adjustment, 

684-688;  Ethical  dualism,  689;   Man's  attitude  toward  demons,  690- 

694  ;  Gods  of  abstractions,  695-697  :  Semitic,  698-700  ;  Egyptian,  701 ; 

Roman  and  Greek,  702  ;  Aryan,  703  ;  Absorption  of  specialized  deities 

by  great  gods,  704-706. 

Nature  Gods.    Their  characteristics,  707,  708;  Cult  of  the  sun,  709- 

713;  of  the  moon,  714  ;  of  stars,  715-718. 

THE  GREAT  GODS.   Their  genesis,  719,  720;  Divine  dynasties,  721-723; 

The  supremacy  of  a  particular  god  determined  by  social  conditions, 

724  :  Origin  of  composite  figures,  725. 

Illustrations  of  the  growth  of  gods,  725  ff.  : 

EGYPTIAN.    Horus,  726;    Ra,  727;    Osiris,  728;    Hathor,  Neith,  Isis, 

729. 

Hindi-.    Varuna,   730;  Indra,    731;  Soma,    732;    Vishnu    and    Civa, 

733;    Dyaus   and   Prithivi,    734;  Ushas   (and   Caktism),   734;    Yama, 

735-  736- 


CONTENTS  xv 

PAGE 

Persian.    Ahura  Mazda  and  Angro  Mainyu,  737,  738;    Mithra  and 
Anahita,  739  ;  Character  of  the  Zoroastrian  reform,  740-745. 
Chinese.     Feeble     theistie    development,    746;     Confucianism    and 
Taoism,  747-749. 
Japanese.    No  great  god,  750. 
Nature  of  Semitic  theistie  constructions,  75 1— 755- 
Babylonian  and  Assyrian.    Ea,  756;    Enlil  (Bel),  757;    Marduk, 
75S;  Ashur,  759;  Female  deities,  760;  Bau,  761  ;  Ishtar,  762,  763. 
Phoenician   and  Arabian.     Melkart,    Eshmun,    Dusares,    Al-Lat, 
Al-Uzza,  764. 

Hebrew.  Yahweh,  765;  The  titles  Ilu  (El),  Elohim,  766. 
Greek.  The  pantheon,  767;  Zeus,  768,  769;  Apollo,  770;  Posei- 
don, 771;  Hermes,  772;  Pan,  773,  774;  Ares,  775;  Dionysus,  776-77S  ; 
Hades,  779,  780;  Female  deities,  781  :  Hera,  782,  783;  Demeter,  784; 
Maiden  goddesses,  785  :  the  Kore,  786 ;  Hestia,  787  ;  Artemis,  788, 
789;  Hekate,  790;  Athene,  791,  792;  Aphrodite,  793,  794;  Breadth 
of  the  Greek  theistie  scheme,  795. 

Roman.    Nature   gods,   796,   797;    Jupiter,    798;    Janus,   799;    Mars, 
800;    Saturn,   Soi  ;    Deities  of  obscure  origin,  802;    Female  deities, 
803  ;    Juno,    S04  ;    Vesta,    805  ;     Diana,  S06 ;     Minerva,  807  ;    Venus, 
808,  809. 
Characteristics  of  the  great  ancient  national  religions,  810-818. 

CHAPTER  VII.    MYTHS 359 

Their  historical  value,  819,  820;   Duration  of  the  mythopceic  age,  821  ; 

Period  of  origination  of  myths,  822  ;   Similarity  of  myths  throughout 

the  world,  823-826;   Classes  of  myths,  827  : 

Cosmogonic.    Creation  of  the  world,  82S-831  ;  of  man,  832,  S33;   Man 

originally  not  mortal,  S34  ;   Macrobiotes,  S35  ;   Primeval  paradise,  835  ; 

Final  destruction  of  the  world,  etc.,  836-S38. 

Et/i  nogonic,  839-84 1 . 

Sociogenic,  842:  Arts  and  ceremonies,  843-845  ;  Relation  between  myth 

and  ritual,  846;   Social  reforms,  847  ,   Sacred  places,  848. 

Astronomical, procellar,  vegetation :  astrological,  849,  850 ;  Storm  myths, 

851  ;   Certain  heroes,  852,  853;   Decay  and  revival  of  vegetation,  854, 

855;    Literary  mythical  histories,  856;  Antagonism  between  light  and 

darkness,  857,  858. 

Mingling  of  myth  and  legend,  859,  860;  Original  nature  of  a  god  given 

in  popular  observances,  861  ;    Interpretation  of  myths,  S62  ;   Ancient, 

863  ;  Recent,  864-879;   Influence  of  myths  on  dogmas  and  ceremonies, 

880;  Fairy  lore,  881. 


xvi      INTRi  WUC  TI( )N  T( )  HISTOR  i '  ( )F  RELIGIONS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VIII.    MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION 392 

Difference  between  their  functions,  8S2. 

MAGIC.  Science  of  magic,  883-S85 ;  Its  methods,  886,  887;  Rela- 
tion between  magic  and  religion,  S88-890  ;  Magic  a  social  product, 
891;  Magicians,  S92-894 ;  Families,  895;  Women,  895,  896;  Tribes, 
897  ;  Power  of  the  magician,  898  ;  His  methods,  899,  900 ;  Attitude 
of  civilized  religions  toward  magic,  901,4902;  Its  persistent  hold  on 
men,  903  ;  Its  historical  role,  904. 

Divination.  Its  nature  and  organization,  905,  906 ;  Prophetic 
ecstasy,  907  ;  Relations  between  magician,  diviner,  and  priest,  908. 

Divinatory  signs,  909,  910;  Signs  without  human  initiation  :  omens, 
911,  912;  Prodigies,  913;  Astrology,  914,  915;  Words  and  acts  of 
men,  916  ;  Parts  of  the  human  body,  917  ;  Signs  arranged  for  by  men  : 
lots,  918;  Haruspication,  etc.,  919,  920;  Oneiromancy,  921-923; 
Ordeals,  924-926  ;  Oracles  and  necromancy,  927  ;  Development  of  the 
office  of  diviner,  928-932  ;  Sibyls  and  Sibylline  books,  933-940  ;  Re- 
ligious and  ethical  influence  of  divination,  941,  942. 

CHAPTER  IX.    THE  HIGHER  THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       440 

Groups  into  which  the  great  religions  fall,  943,  944. 
Polytheism.  Differences  between  the  polytheistic  schemes  of 
various  peoples :  Egyptian,  Semitic,  Indo-European,  Mexican,  Peru- 
vian, 945-950;  Extent  of  anthropomorphization  of  gods  measured  by 
richness  of  mythology  :  in  savage  and  half-civilized  communities,  952- 
954 ;  Gradations  of  anthropomorphization  in  civilized  peoples,  955— 
964 ;  Religious  role  of  polytheism,  965,  966 ;  Dissatisfaction  wTith  its 
discordances,  and  demand  for  simplification  of  the  conception  of  the 
divine  government  of  the  world,  967. 

Dualism.  Belief  of  lower  tribes  in  two  mutually  antagonistic  sets  of 
Powers,  968-972  ;  Of  the  great  ancient  religions  it  is  only  Zoroastrian- 
ism  that  has  constructed  a  dualistic  system,  973-976  ;  Whether  a 
strictly  dualistic  scheme  has  ever  existed,  977  ;  Manichaeism,  978 ; 
Problems  raised  by  dualism,  979. 

Monotheism.  The  general  movement  toward  it,  980,  981;  Two 
theories  of  its  origin  :  that  it  is  the  natural  primitive  form  of  religion, 
that  it  is  the  result  of  a  primitive  divine  revelation,  982  ;  The  facts  in 
the  case :  it  is  not  now  found  in  low  tribes,  983-985  ;  it  is  not  visible 
in  the  popular  cults  of  the  great  nations  of  antiquity,  986 ;  But  ten- 
dency toward  a  unitary  conception  of  the  divine  government  of  the 
world,  987  ;  Disposition  to  ascribe  absoluteness  to  some  one  deity  in 


CONTENTS  xvii 


Egypt,  Babylonia,  Assyria,  India,  988-991  ;  Chinese  headship  of 
Heaven,  992  ;  Peruvian  cult  of  the  sun,  993  ;  Hebrew  monolatry,  994, 
995;  Demand  for  unity  by  Greek  poets  and  philosophers,  996-1001  ; 
Judaism,  Christianity,  and  Islam,  1002;  Cults  of  Isis  and  Mithra  — 
Modern  reforms:  Brahma-Samaj,  Parsi,  Babist,  Shinto,  1003. 
Pantheistic  and  Nontheistic  Systems.  Pantheism  is  a  revolt 
against  the  separation  of  God  and  the  world,  1004  '■>  Perplexing  ethical 
and  religious  questions  make  it  unacceptable  to  the  mass  of  men,  1005  ; 
Nontheistic  systems  attempt  to  secure  unity  by  taking  the  world  to  be 
self-sufficient,  or  by  regarding  the  gods  as  otiose,  1006;  The  Sankhya 
philosophy  dispenses  with  extrahuman  Powers,  but  recognizes  the  soul 
—  Buddhism  ignores  both,  1007  ;  Greek  materialism,  1008. 
General  Survey  of  the  Theistic  Development,  1009  ff.  Interven- 
tion of  gods  fixed  by  appeal  to  natural  law,  1010;  Persistence  of  belief 
in  miracles,  1011 ;  Constitution  of  the  deity  constructed  by  philosophy, 
1012  ;  His  moral  character  determined  by  that  of  his  worshipers,  1013. 

CHAPTER  X.    SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION     .      .  4S1 

The  external  history  of  religion  a  history  of  social  growth,  10 14- 
1016. 

External  Worship.  Establishment  of  relations  with  Powers,  1017, 
1018  :  by  processes,  1019-1021  ;  by  gifts,  1022,  1023;  by  messengers, 
1024,  1025;  Blood  is  placatory  as  a  gift  of  food,  1026;  Human 
sacrifice,  1027-1031  ;  Dances  and  processions,  1032;  Preponderant 
importance  of  ordinary  sacrifices  —  the  various  kinds,  1033-1035; 
Elaboration  of  the  sacrificial  ritual,  1036. 

Theories  of  the  Origin  of  Sacrifice.  Their  formulation  late, 
1037  ;  Bloody  and  unbloody  offerings  equal  in  expiatory  virtue,  1038; 
Two  groups  of  theories  of  origin,  1039:  the  offering  as  gift,  1040, 
1 04 1  ;  as  effecting  union  between  deity  and  worshiper,  1042  :  by  shar- 
ing the  flesh  of  a  sacred  animal  (Smith  and  Frazer),  1043-1047  ;  Self- 
sacrifice  of  a  god,  1048  ;  Union  through  a  sanctified  victim  (Hubert  and 
Mauss),  1049,  1050;  Union  with  the  Infinite  effected  by  all  religious 
acts  (Tiele),  1051,  1052  ;  Persistence  of  these  conceptions  of  sacrifice 
1053,  1054. 

Ritual.  Its  growth  in  elaborateness  along  with  the  growth  of 
social  forms,  1055-1061. 

Priests.  Regulation  of  the  life,  physical  and  moral,  of  priests  and 
priestesses,  1062-1065;  Origin  of  religious  prostitution:  secular  and 
religious  explanations,  1066 ;  Organization  and  influence  of  the  priest- 
hood: Egyptian,  1067;   Babylonian  and  Assyrian,  1068;  Palestinian, 


xviii     INTRi  >Dl  \  TI<  W  T(  >  HISTi  )RV  OF  RELIGIONS 

PAGE 

1069;  Hindu,  1070;  Persian,  1071  ;  Greek,  1072;  Roman,  1073  ;  Chi- 
74;  Peruvian  and  Mexican,  1075;  Influence  for  good  and  for 
evil,  1076-1079;  No  priesthood  in  Islam  or  in  Judaism  after  70  a.d., 
10S0;  Its  function  in  some  Christian  churches,  1080. 
Worship.  Early  places  of  worship?  1081-1082;  Development  of 
temples,  1083-1086;  Forms  of  worship:  offerings,  hymns,  music,  1087, 
Festivals,  1089;  Vows,  blessings,  curses,  1090;  Idols:  their 
formal  development,  1091,  1092;  Conception  of  their  personality, 
1003;  Religious  function  of  idolatry,  1094. 

CHURCHES.  Individualism  called  forth  voluntary  associations,  1095; 
Savage  secret  societies,  1096;  Greek  mysteries,  1097-1099;  Whether 
the  Semites  produced  mysteries,  1100;  Rise  of  the  idea  of  the  church 
in  the  Graeco-Roman  world,  1101:  Philosophy  produced  no  church, 
1102-1105;  True  churches  produced  by  Buddhism  and  Jainism,  1106, 
1 107  ;  not  by  Judaism  and  Mazdaism,  110S,  11 09;  Development  of  the 
Christian  idea  of  the  church,  1 1  10-1 1 12  ;  A  church  called  forth  by  the 
cult  of  Mithra,  n  13;  not  by  that  of  Isis  or  that  of  Sarapis,  11 14; 
The  Manichaean  church,  11 15;  As  to  Islam  and  certain  associations 
that  have  arisen  within  it  (Mahdism,  Drusism,  etc.),  11 16;  Ecclesiastical 
power  of  the  Peruvian  Inca,  11 17;  Hindu  and  Persian  movements, 
111 8—  1 120. 

MONACHISM.  Its  dualistic  root,  1121;  India  its  birthplace,  1122; 
Trace  in  Egypt  (the  Sarapeum),  11 23;  Therapeutae,  n  24;  Essenes, 
1 125;  Christian  monachism,  1126;  Religious  influence  of  monachism, 
1127. 

Sacred  Books.  Their  origin  and  collection,  n 28;  Canons:  Bud- 
dhist, 1129;  Jewish,  1130;  Christian,  1131;  Mazdean,  1132;  Islamic, 
1133;  Religious  influence  of  sacred  books,  1134-1136;  General  influ- 
ence of  churches,  1 137— 1 140. 

Universal  Religions.  Actual  diffusion  the  test  of  universality, 
1 141;  As  to  Buddhism,  1142;  Judaism,  1143;  Christianity,  1144; 
Zoroastrianism,  1 145  ;  Islam,  1146;  So  tested  no  existing  religion  is 
universal,  1147. 

Cl  OSSIFICATION  of  Religions.  Their  resemblances  and  differences, 
1 148;  Points  in  common,  1149;  Proposed  systems  of  classification,  and 
obje<  tionS  to  them:  according  to  grade  of  general  culture,  11 50;  divi- 
sion into  national  religions  and  those  founded  each  by  a  single  person, 
1 151;  religions  of  redemption,  11 51;  Religious  unity,  savage  and 
civilized,  11 52;  Disadvantages  of  tabulated  classifications  of  religions, 
"53- 


CONTENTS  xix 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  XI.    SCIENTIFIC  AND  ETHICAL  ELEMENTS  IN 

RELIGIOUS  SYSTEMS 573 

Spheres  of  religion,  science  and  constructive  ethics  distinct,  but  tend 
to  coalesce,  1 1 54. 

The  Scientific  Element.  When  science  clashes  with  religion, 
1 155;  Phases  in  the  relation  between  the  two:  when  there  is  no 
knowledge  of  natural  law  —  a  crude  conception  of  unity  —  no  place 
for  the  miraculous,  11 56;  Rise  of  highly  personalized  deities  who 
stand  outside  the  world:  age  of  miracles,  11 57;  Recognition  of  the 
domination  of  natural  law  —  separation  between  science  and  religion, 
115S;  Higher  conception  of  the  unity  of  God  and  the  world,  n  59; 
Scientific  theories  held  to  be  not  a  part  of  the  content  of  religion,  1 160. 
The  Ethical  Element.  Religion  adopts  current  ethical  customs 
and  codes,  1161;  Both  good,  1162;  and  bad,  1 163  ;  Mutual  influence 
of  religion  and  ethics,  1164,  1165;  Religion  infuses  nobility  and  ten- 
derness into  ethics,  11 66;  Religious  personalities  :  martyr,  saint,  1167, 
1168;  Evil  influence  of  religion  on  ethics,  1169;  Contribution  of  re- 
ligion to  the  sense  of  obligation  to  do  right,  1 170  ;  Answers  of  religion 
to  questions  concerning  the  existence  of  moral  evil,  1171  ;  concerning 
man's  moral  capacity,  11 72;  concerning  the  essential  goodness  or 
badness  of  the  world,   1 1 73. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 585 

INDEX 625 


INTRODUCTION   TO    THE 
HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

CHAPTER  I 
NATURE  OF  RELIGION 

1.  It  appears  probable  that  primitive  men  endowed  with  their 
own  qualities  every  seemingly  active  object  in  the  world.  Experience 
forced  them  to  take  note  of  the  relations  of  all  objects  to  themselves 
and  to  one  another.  The  knowledge  of  the  sequences  of  phenomena, 
so  far  as  the  latter  are  not  regarded  as  acting  intentionally  on  him, 
constitutes  man's  science  and  philosophy ;  so  far  as  they  are  held 
to  act  on  him  intentionally,  the  knowledge  of  them  constitutes  his 
theory  of  religion,  and  his  sense  of  relation  with  them  is  his  reli- 
gious sentiment.  Science  and  religion  are  coeval  in  man's  history, 
and  both  are  independently  continuous  and  progressive.  At  first 
science  is  in  the  background  because  most  objects,  since  they  are 
believed  to  be  alive  and  active,  are  naturally  supposed  by  man  to 
affect  him  purposely ;  it  grows  slowly,  keeping  pace  with  observation, 
and  constantly  abstracting  phenomena  from  the  domain  of  religion.1 
Religion  is  man's  attitude  toward  the  universe  regarded  as  a  social 
and  ethical  force  ;  it  is  the  sense  of  social  solidarity  with  objects  re- 
garded as  Powers,  and  the  institution  of  social  relations  with  them. 

2.  These  Powers  are  thought  of  in  general  as  mysterious,  and 
as  mightier  than  ordinary  living  men.2  Ordinarily  the  feeling  toward 
them  on  man's  part  is  one  of  dependence  —  he  is  conscious  of  his 

1  That  is,  phenomena  regarded  as  special  acts  of  a  superhuman  Power ;  in  the 
larger  conception  of  religion  all  phenomena  are  at  once  natural  and  divine  acts. 

2  In  early  religion  they  are  usually  ghosts,  beasts,  plants,  or  inanimate  objects; 
rarely  living  men.  Cf .  Marett's  remarks  on  pre-animistic  religion  in  his  Threshold  of 
Religion. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

inferiority.  In  sonic  forms  of  philosophic  thought  the  man  regards 
himself  as  part  of  the  one  universal  personal  Power,  or  as  part  of 
the  impersonal  Whole,  and  his  attitude  toward  the  Power  or  the 
Whole  is  like  that  of  a  member  of  a  composite  political  body  toward 
the  whole  body  ;  such  a  position  is  possible,  however,  only  in  a 
period  of  very  advanced  culture. 

3.  There  being  no  records  of  initial  humanity,  it  is  hardly  pos- 
sible for  us  to  know  certainly  what  the  earliest  men's  feeling  was 
toward  the  animate  and  inanimate  forces  around  them.  Not  im- 
probably it  was  simply  fear,  the  result  of  ignorance  of  their  nature 
and  absence  of  social  relations  with  them.  But  in  the  human 
communities  known  to  us,  even  the  lowest,  the  relations  with  extra- 
human  beings  appear  to  be  in  general  of  a  mixed  nature,  some- 
times friendly,  sometimes  unfriendly,  but  neither  pure  love  nor 
pure  hatred.  So  refined  a  feeling  as  love  for  a  deity  is  not  found 
among  savages.  As  religion  springs  from  the  human  demand  for 
safety  and  happiness  as  the  gift  of  the  extrahuman  Powers,  hostil- 
ity to  them  has  been  generally  felt  to  be  opposed  to  common  sense.1 
Coercion  there  has  been,  as  in  magical  procedures,  or  to  bring  a 
stubborn  deity  to  terms ;  and  occasional  antagonism  (for  example, 
toward  foreign  gods) ;  but  not  hatred  proper  as  a  dogma,  except 
in  the  great  ethical  religions  toward  evil  spirits,  and  in  certain  elab- 
orate philosophic  systems  —  as,  for  example,  in  the  Gnostic  concep- 
tion of  an  imperfect  Demiurge,  or  in  the  assumption  of  an  original 
blind  Chance  or  blind  Will  whose  products  and  laws  are  regarded 
as  not  entitled  to  respect  and  obedience. 

4.  Instead  of  complete  friendliness  and  unfriendliness  in  early 
tribes  we  find  more  commonly  between  the  two  a  middle  ground 
of  self-regarding  equipoise.  The  savage,  the  half-civilized  man,  and 
the  peasant  often  deal  with  superhuman  Powers  in  a  purely  selfish 
commercial  spirit,  courting  or  neglecting  them  as  they  seem  likely 

1  Appeal  to  the  Powers  carries  with  it  a  certain  sense  of  oneness  with  them,  in 
which  we  may  reasonably  recognize  the  germ  of  the  idea  of  union  with  God,  which 
is  the  highest  form  of  religion.  This  idea  is  not  consciously  held  by  the  savage  —  it 
takes  shape  only  in  highly  developed  thought  (Plato,  the  New  Testament,  Christian 
and  other  mysticism).  If  the  impulse  to  religion  be  thought  to  be  love  of  life  (so 
Leuba,  in  the  Monist,  July,  1901),  this  is  substantially  desire  for  safety  and  happiness. 


NA  TURE  OF  RELIGION  3 

to  be  useful  or  not.  The  Central  Australian  (who  may  be  credited 
with  a  dim  sense  of  the  superhuman)  conducts  his  ceremonies,  in- 
tended to  insure  a  supply  of  food,  apparently  without  the  slightest 
emotion  of  any  sort  except  the  desire  for  gain.1  The  Italian  peas- 
ant, who  has  vowed  a  wax  candle  to  a  saint  in  return  for  a  favor 
to  be  shown,  does  not  scruple  to  cheat  the  saint,  after  the  latter 
has  performed  his  part  of  the  agreement,  by  offering  tallow  instead 
of  wax,  if  he  thinks  he  can  do  so  with  impunity.  A  recusant  deity 
is  sometimes  neglected  or  even  kicked  by  way  of  punishment  or  to 
force  him  to  give  the  desired  aid,  and  a  god  or  a  saint  is  valued  and 
sought  after  in  proportion  to  his  supposed  ability  to  be  useful. 

5 .  And  this  naively  utilitarian  point  of  view  is  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  the  lowest  forms  of  religion ;  in  the  Old  Testament,  for 
example,  the  appeal  to  Yahveh  is  generally  based  on  his  assumed 
power  to  bestow  temporal  blessings,2  and  this  is  a  widespread  atti- 
tude at  the  present  day  in  religious  communities,  where  salvation  is 
commonly  the  end  had  in  view  by  the  worshiper.  Love  toward  the 
deity  simply  on  account  of  his  personal  moral  character,  without  re- 
gard to  the  benefit  (namely  happiness)  to  be  got  from  him,  is  found, 
if  found  at  all,  only  in  highly  cultivated  natures,  and  is  rare  in  these. 
And,  in  truth,  it  is  difficult  if  not  impossible  to  justify  religion  except 
on  the  ground  that  it  brings  satisfaction  (that  is,  happiness  through 
and  in  perfection  of  nature)  in  the  broadest  and  highest  sense  of 
that  term,  for  otherwise  it  could  not  be  regarded  as  a  good  thing. 

6.  On  the  other  hand,  fear  of  the  superhuman  Power  is  a  common 
feeling,  recognizable  everywhere,  at  all  times,  and  in  all  stages  of 
social  and  intellectual  development.  By  many  it  is  regarded  as  the 
original  and  essential  attitude  of  the  religious  mind.3  To  this  view 
it  is  sometimes  objected  that  religion  could  never  have  arisen  from 
fear  —  that  religion,  as  a  cult,  of  necessity  involves  amicable  rela- 
tions between  man  and  the  deity.  The  objection,  however,  is  based 
on  an  arbitrary  and  incorrect  definition  of  religion  ;  it  is  quite  con- 
ceivable that  man  might  cultivate  the  deity  through  fear  of  the 

1  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  170. 

2  Gen.  xxviii,  20-22  ;  Hos.  ii ;  Ezek.  xxxvi ;  and  the  Psalter  passim. 

3  The  classic  expression  of  this  view  is  given  by  Statius  (77/.  3,  661)  :  primus  in 
orbc  deos  fecit  Conor.    Cf.  L.  Marillier,  in  International  Monthly,  ii  (1900),  362  ff. 


4         /.WAV  )/>(  X '/'/(  W  Tt  >  1 1  IS  IX  )RY  OF  RELIGIONS 

latter's  displeasure,  and  that  an  elaborate  system  of  ceremonies 
and  beliefs  might  arise  from  the  desire  to  avert  his  anger.  Such 
a  conception  —  which  is  certainly  not  a  lofty  one  —  is  not  un- 
natural in  the  presence  of  a  great  Power  whose  dispositions  and 
purposes  are  not  well  understood ;  numerous  examples  of  such  an 
attitude  might  be  cited  from  various  religions,  savage  and  civilized. 

7.  But,  on  historical  grounds,  as  in  the  examples  given  above,  it 
seems  better  to  say  that  the  earliest  known  attitude  of  man  toward 
ihe  superhuman  Power  is  one  of  interested  observation  and  fluid 
emotion  —  the  feeling  is  determined  by  experience  of  phenomena. 
The  man  is  pleased,  displeased  and  afraid,  suspicious  or  careless, 
according  as  he  sees  things  to  be  helpful,  harmful,  doubtful,  or 
resultless.  In  process  of  time,  by  observation  and  reflection,  he 
succeeds  in  tabulating  phenomena,  and  more  or  less  definitely  fixing 
his  emotional  attitude  toward  their  assumed  cause.  A  tradition  is 
gradually  established,  and  men  are  trained  from  infancy  to  wel- 
come certain  things,  to  fear  others,  and  to  accept  certain  others  as 
meaningless  ;  from  time  to  time  strange  things  will  appear,  and  these 
will  be  treated  according  to  established  principles  or  will  remain 
mysterious.  A  germinal  conception  of  natural  law  will  arise  from 
the  observation  of  periodically  occurring  phenomena  (such  as  the 
rising  and  setting  of  the  sun,  periodic  rains,  tides)  and  familiar  facts 
of  everyday  life,  as,  for  example,  the  habits  of  men  and  other  ani- 
mals. Everything  outside  this  sphere  will  be  ascribed  to  extrahuman 
agency  —  so  sickness,  death,  and  sometimes  birth.1 

8.  The  history  of  religion,  which  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  thought, 
necessarily  shows,  as  is  observed  above,  a  constant  enlargement  of 
the  domain  of  natural  law,  and  a  consequent  contraction  of  the 
direct  action  of  the  supernatural,  though  this  does  not  always  or 
generally  lessen  the  conviction  that  the  Supernatural  Power,  acting 
through  natural  law,  controls  all  things.  In  this  process,  also,  the 
conception  of  the  attitude  of  the  Supernatural  Power  is  more  or 
less  definitely  fixed  ;  a  formulation  of  signs  is  accomplished,  whereby 
it  is  known  whether  the  deity,  at  particular  moments,  is  pleased  or 

1  For  numerous  examples  of  the  belief  in  supernatural  birth  see  E.  S.  Hartland, 
Primitive  Paternity. 


A\  1  Tl  RE  OF  RELIGION  5 

displeased,  and  whether  a  given  deity  is  generally  friendly  or  hostile. 
This  method  of  determining  the  attitude  of  the  deity  continued  into 
late  stages  of  social  life,  and  still  exists  even  in  professedly  Christian 
communities.1 

9.  As  the  basis  of  the  religious  feeling  we  must  suppose  a  sense 
and  conception  of  an  extrahuman  Something,  the  cause  of  things 
not  otherwise  understood.  All  things  were  supposed  to  have  life, 
and  therefore  to  be  loci  of  force ;  man's  sense  of  social  relation  with 
this  force  constituted  his  religion.  This  sense  was  at  first  doubtless 
vague,  ill-defined,  or  undefined,  and  in  this  form  it  is  now  found  in 
certain  tribes.2  Gradually,  as  the  processes  of  human  life  and  of 
the  external  world  become  better  known,  and  the  vastness  of  the 
extrahuman  control  becomes  evident,  the  Something  is  conceived 
of  as  great,  then  as  indefinitely  great,  and  finally,  under  the  guidance 
of  philosophic  thought,  as  infinite.  Thus  the  sense  of  the  infinite 
may  be  said  to  be  present  in  man's  mind  in  germinal  form  at  the 
beginning  of  truly  human  life,  though  it  does  not  attain  full  shape, 
is  not  formulated,  and  is  not  effective,  till  the  period  of  philosophic 
culture  is  reached.3 

10.  As  far  as  our  present  knowledge  goes,  religion  appears  to  be 
universal  among  men.  There  is  no  community  of  which. we  can 
say  with  certainty  that  it  is  without  religion.  There  are  some  doubt- 
ful cases  —  for  example,  certain  Australian  tribes  reported  on  by 
Spencer  and  Gillen,  among  whom  it  is  difficult  to  discover  any  defi- 
nite religious  feeling :  they  offer  no  sacrifices  or  petitions,  and  ap- 
pear to  recognize  no  personal  relations  with  any  supernatural  Power, 
beyond  the  belief  that  the  spirits  of  the  dead  are  active  in  their 

1  Modern  civilized  nations,  after  victories  in  war,  commonly  assume  that  God  has 
thus  pronounced  in  favor  of  the  justice  and  right  of  their  side,  and  sing  Te  Deums. 

2  This  vagueness  reappears  in  some  systems  of  late  philosophic  speculation.  On 
the  question  whether  a  sense  of  the  divine  exists  anterior  to  conscious  experience 
cf.  Marett,  Threshold  of  Religion. 

3  This  is  only  a  particular  application  of  the  general  assumption  that  all  human 
powers  exist  in  germ  in  the  lowest  human  forms.  Discussions  of  the  sense  of  the 
infinite  are  found  in  the  Gifford  Lectures  of  F.  Max  Miiller  and  Tiele,  and  in  Jastrow's 
Study  of  Religion.  But  early  man  thinks  only  of  the  particular  objects  with  which 
he  comes  into  contact ;  the  later  belief  in  an  Infinite  is  a  product  of  experience  and 
reflection. 


6         INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

midst,  causing  sickness,  death,  and  birth  ;  nor  is  there  any  sign  that 
they  have  lost  earlier  more  definite  beliefs.1  Yet  they  have  solemn 
ceremonies  in  which  human  blood  plays  a  great  part,  and  these 
may  have  reference  to  the  intervention  of  supernatural  beings,  the 
term  "  supernatural "  being  taken  as  expressing  any  mysterious 
fact  lying  outside  of  the  common  course  of  things.  A  mysterious 
being  called  Twan  is  spoken  of  in  initiation  ceremonies,  chiefly,  it 
seems,  to  frighten  or  train  the  boys.  Is  there  an  indication  that 
the  tribal  leaders  have  risen  above  the  popular  belief  in  such  a 
being  ?  Experience  shows  that  it  is  difficult  for  civilized  men  to  get 
at  the  religious  ideas  of  savages ;  and  it  is  possible,  in  spite  of  the 
careful  investigations  thus  far  made,  that  the  last  word  on  Central 
Australian  beliefs  has  not  yet  been  spoken.  A  similar  reserve  must 
be  exercised  in  regard  to  reports  of  certain  other  tribes,  whose 
ceremonies  and  institutions  have  appeared  to  some  European  and 
American  observers  to  be  without  a  religious  element.2 

11.  There  is  at  present  no  satisfactory  historical  evidence  (what- 
ever psychological  ground  there  may  be,  or  whatever  deduction 
from  the  theory  of  evolution  may  seem  necessary)  of  the  existence 
of  a  subreligious  stage  of  human  life  —  a  stage  in  which  there  is 
only  a. vague  sense  of  some  extrahuman  power  affecting  man's 
interests,  without  definition  of  the  power,  and  without  attempt  to 
enter  into  social  relations  with  it.3 

12.  True,  in  the  great  mass  of  existing  savage  humanity  we 
find  social  and  religious  customs  so  definite  that  we  are  forced  to 
suppose  a  long  preceding  period  of  development.    It  has  even  been 

1  Cf.  Annee  sociologiquc,  iii  (189S-1S99),  205  ff. 

2  On  the  Fuegians  cf.  R.  Fitzroy,  in  Voyages  of  the  Adventure  and  the  Beagle, 
ii  (1S31-1S36),  179  ff. ;  on  the  African  Pygmies,  A.  de  Quatrefages,  The  Pygmies 
(Eng.'tr.,  1895),  p.  124  ff. ;  W.  Schmidt.  Pygmdcnrolkcr,  p.  231  ff. ;  on  Ceylon,  T.  IT. 
Parker,  Ancient  Ceylon,  iv ;  and  on  the  Guaranis  and  Tapuyas  (Botocudos)  of  Bra- 
zil, Waitz-Gerland,  Anthropologic,  iii,  418,  and  the  references  in  Hastings,  Encyclo- 
pedia of  Religion  and  Ethics,  ii,  S37  f.  The  Fuegians  are  said  to  stand  in  awe  of  a 
"  black  man  "  who,  they  believe,  lives  in  the  forest  and  punishes  bad  actions.  On  the 
people  of  New  Guinea  see  C.  G.  Seligmann,  The  Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea, 
chaps.  16,  25,  48,  55. 

3  Such  relations  exist  between  men  and  the  vague  force  variously  called  mana, 
manitu,  wakonda ;  but  the  conception  of  this  force  is  scientific  rather  than  religious, 
though  it  is  brought  into  connection  with  religious  ideas  and  usages, 


NATURE  OF  RELIGION  7 

held  that  traces  of  religious  conceptions  are  discernible  in  the  first 
surviving  records  of  "prehistoric"  man,  the  contemporary  of  the 
cave  bear  —  a  period  separated  from  the  earliest  clear  historical 
records  by  many  millenniums;1  but,  though  the  existence  of  such 
conceptions  is  by  no  means  improbable,  the  alleged  traces  are  too 
dim  to  build  a  theory  on.  The  supposition  of  a  continuous  religious 
development  from  the  earliest  times  is  in  accord  with  all  that  we  know 
of  human  history,  but,  until  more  facts  come  to  light,  it  will  be  pru- 
dent to  reserve  opinion  as  to  the  character  of  prehistoric  religion.2 
13.  In  general,  religious  development  goes  hand  in  hand  with 
social  organization.  Those  groups  which,  like  the  Rock  Veddas 
of  Ceylon  (described  by  Sarasin)  and  the  Yahgans  of  Tierra  del 
Fuego  (described  by  Hyades  and  Deniker),  have  scarcely  any  clan 
organization,  have  also  scarcely  any  religion.  In  most  of  the  lowest 
communities  known  to  us  we  find  well-constituted  clans  and  tribes, 
with  strict  (and  usually  complicated)  laws  of  relationship  and  mar- 
riage, and  a  somewhat  developed  form  of  religion.3  Here  again  it 
is  evident  that  we  see  in  the  world  only  the  later  stages  of  a  long 
social  process ;  the  antecedent  history  of  this  process  belongs  to 
sociological  science,  and  does  not  concern  us  here  ; 4  its  later  history 
is  inseparably  connected  with  the  development  of  religion. 

1  The  evidence  is  summed  up  in  G.  d'Alviella's  Hibbert  Lectures.  Cf.  Brinton, 
Religion  of  Primitive  Peoples,  p.  30  ff. 

2  The  question  whether  the  religious  sense  exists  in  the  lower  animals  is  discussed 
by  Darwin,  Descent  of  Man  (1S71),  p.  65  ff.,  ioi  f.,  and  others.  The  question  is  similar 
to  that  respecting  conscience  ;  in  both  cases  there  is  in  beasts  a  germ  that  appears 
never  to  grow  beyond  a  certain  point.  On  the  genesis  of  the  moral  sense  see  (be- 
sides the  works  of  Aristotle,  Spinoza,  Kant,  and  their  successors)  G.  II.  Palmer,  The 
Field  of  Ethics;  L.  T.  Hobhouse,  Morals  in  Evolution;  E.  Westermarck,  Origin  and 
Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas.  In  regard  to  religious  feeling  we  observe  in  cer- 
tain animals,  especially  in  the  domesticated  dog,  an  attitude  of  dependence  and  de- 
votion toward  the  master  as  a  superior  Power  that  is  similar  to  the  attitude  of  man 
toward  a  deity,  only  with  more  affection  and  self-surrender.  But  in  the  animal,  so 
far  as  we  can  judge,  the  intellectual  and  ethical  conceptions  do  not  come  to  their 
full  rights  —  there  is  no  idea  of  a  Tower  possessing  moral  qualities  and  controlling  all 
phenomena.  The  beast,  therefore,  is  not  religious  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term. 
But  between  the  beast  and  the  first  man  the  difference  may  have  been  not  great. 

3  The  Central  Australians,  however,  have  an  elaborate  marriage  law  with  the 
simplest  political  organization  and  the  minimum  of  religion. 

4  Cf.  L.  M.  Kcasbcy,  in  International  Monthly,  i  (1900),  355  ff .  ;  I.  King,  The 
Development  of 'Religion,  Introduction. 


8         INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

14.  It  is  in  this  social  process  that  science,  philosophy,  art,  and 
ethics  are  constructed,  and  these,  though  distinct  from  the  religious 
sentiment,  always  blend  with  it  into  a  unity  of  life.  Religion  proper 
is  simply  an  attitude  toward  a  Power  ;  the  nature  and  activity  of  the 
Power  and  the  mode  of  approaching  it  are  constructed  by  man's 
observation  and  reflection.  The  analysis  of  the  external  world  and 
of  man's  body  and  mind,  the  discovery  of  natural  laws,  the  history 
of  the  internal  and  external  careers  of  the  human  race  —  this  is  the 
affair  of  science  and  philosophy  ;  rules  of  conduct,  individual  and 
communal,  grow  up  through  men's  association  with  one  another  in 
society,  their  basis  being  certain  primary  instincts  of  self-assertion 
and  sympathy  ;  art  is  the  product  of  the  universal  sense  of  beauty. 
All  these  lines  of  growth  stand  side  by  side  and  coalesce  in  unitary 
human  life. 

15.  The  external  history  of  religion  is  the  history  of  the  process 
by  which  the  religious  sentiment  has  attached  itself  to  the  various 
conceptions  formed  by  man's  experience :  ritual  is  the  religious 
application  of  the  code  of  social  manners ;  the  gods  reflect  human 
character;  churches  follow  the  methods  of  social  organization  ;  mon- 
otheism springs  from  the  sense  of  the  physical  and  moral  unity  of 
the  world.  Ideas  concerning  the  nature  and  functions  of  the  deity, 
the  nature  of  the  soul  and  of  conscience,  and  future  life  are  all 
products  of  scientific  thought  and  might  exist  if  religion  did  not 
exist,  that  is,  if  men  did  not  recognize  any  practical  relations  between 
themselves  and  the  deity.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  religious  senti- 
ment, coexisting  with  these  ideas,  has  always  entered  into  alliance 
with  them,  creating  nothing,  but  appropriating  everything.  Super- 
natural sanctions  and  emotional  coloring  are  products  of  general 
experience  and  feeling.  The  intellectual  and  ethical  content  of  re- 
ligion varies  with  the  intellectual  and  ethical  culture  of  its  adher- 
ents ;  we  may  speak  properly  of  the  philosophy  and  morals,  not  of 
a  religion,  but  of  the  people  who  profess  it. 

16.  The  internal  history  of  religion  is  the  history  of  individual 
religious  emotional  experience  (a  phenomenon  that  hardly  appears 
at  all  in  the  records  of  early  life),  and  becomes  especially  interesting 
only  in  periods  of  advanced  culture.    It  is  true  that  this  experience 


NATURE  OF  RELIGION  9 

is  based  on  the  whole  reflective  life  of  man,  whose  beginnings  go 
back  to  the  earliest  times.  Aspirations  and  ideals,  connected  es- 
pecially with  man's  religious  life,  spring  from  the  long  line  of  expe- 
riences with  which  men  have  always  been  struggling.  The  central 
fact  of  the  higher  religious  experience  is  communion  and  union 
with  the  deity,  and  the  roots  of  this  conception  are  found  in  all 
the  religious  ideas  and  usages  that  have  been  formulated  and 
practiced  in  human  history.  The  study  of  such  ideas  and  practices 
is  thus  important  for  the  understanding  of  the  later  more  refined 
spiritual  life,  as  in  turn  this  latter  throws  light  on  its  crude  pred- 
ecessors. It  is  no  disparagement  to  the  higher  forms  of  thought 
that  they  have  grown  from  feeble  beginnings,  and  it  does  not  de- 
tract from  the  historical  value  of  primitive  life  that  we  must  decline 
to  credit  it  with  depth  and  refinement.  Every  phase  and  every 
stadium  of  human  experience  has  its  value,  and  the  higher  stages 
must  be  estimated  by  what  they  are  in  themselves.  In  the  history 
of  religion  the  outward  and  the  inward  elements  have  stood  side 
by  side  in  a  unitary  experience.  But,  though  the  deeper  feeling  is 
necessarily  more  or  less  closely  connected  with  the  external  history, 
it  is  an  independent  fact  requiring  a  separate  treatment,  and  will 
be  only  occasionally  referred  to  in  the  present  volume. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE    SOUL 

17.  The  doctrine  of  the  soul  is  so  interwoven  with  the  history  of 
relipous  beliefs  that  a  brief  statement  of  its  early  forms  will  be 
appropriate  before  we  enter  on  the  consideration  of  religious  insti- 
tutions and  ideas.1 

1.  Nature  of  the  Soul 

18.  The  belief  in  an  interior  something  in  man,  different  from 
the  body,  appears  to  be  practically  universal  in  early  human  history  ; 
the  ideas  concerning  the  nature  of  the  soul  have  changed  from  time 
to  time,  but  no  tribe  of  men  has  yet  been  found  in  which  it  is  certain 
that  there  is  no  belief  in  its  existence.  The  Central  Australians,  re- 
ligiously one  of  the  least-developed  communities  known,  believe  in 
ghosts,  and  a  ghost  presupposes  some  sort  of  substance  different 
from  the  ordinary  body.  Of  some  tribes,  as  the  Pygmies  of  Central 
Africa  and  the  Fuegians,  we  have  no  exact  information  on  this  point. 
But  in  all  cases  in  which  there  is  information  traces  of  a  belief  in  a 
soul  are  found.  We  are  not  concerned  here  with  philosophic  views, 
like  that  of  Buddhism  and  many  modern  psychologists,  that  do  not 
admit  the  existence  of  the  soul  as  a  separate  entity.  The  proofs  of 
the  universality  of  the  belief  in  a  soul  are  scattered  through  all  books 
that  deal  with  man's  religious  constitution  and  history.2 

19.  For  the  basis  of  a  universal  fact  of  human  experience  we 
naturally  seek  a  universal  or  essential  element  of  human  thought. 
In  this  case  we  must  assume  a  natural  or  instinctive  conviction  of 
the  existence  of  an  internal  life  or  being  —  a  consciousness  (at  first 

1  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  ( 'nl/iur,  chap,  xi  f. 

2  Beasts,  plants,  and  what  we  call  inanimate  objects,  also  are  held,  in  early  stages 
of  civilization,  to  have  souls  —  a  natural  inference  from  the  belief  that  these  last  are 
alive  and  that  all  things  have  a  nature  like  that  of  man. 

10 


THE  SOUL  I  i 

doubtless  dim  and  vague)  of  something  diverse  and  separate  from 
the  visible  physical  being,  a  sense  of  mental  activity  in  thought, 
feeling,  and  will. 

20.  It  is  not  surprising  that  we  do  not  meet  with  the  expression 
of  such  a  consciousness  among  savages :  partly,  as  is  well  known, 
they  are  like  children,  intellectually  incapable  of  formulating  their 
instinctive  beliefs  (and  they  have,  consequently,  no  word  to  express 
such  a  formulation)  ;  partly,  they  are  not  disposed  to  speak  frankly 
on  subjects  that  they  regard  as  sacred  or  mysterious.  Attempts  at 
formulation  follow  the  lines  of  culture,  and  it  is  not  till  a  compara- 
tively kite  stage  that  they  reach  definite  shape. 

21.  The  interior  being,  whose  existence  was  vaguely  felt,  was 
recognized  by  early  man  in  many  common  experiences.  Certain 
phenomena  were  observed  that  seemed  to  be  universal  accompani- 
ments of  life,  and  these,  by  a  strictly  scientific  method  of  procedure, 
were  referred  to  an  inward  living  thing.  It  was  hardly  possible  for 
early  observers  not  to  notice  that  when  the  breath  ceased  the  life 
ceased ;  hence  many  peoples  have  regarded  the  breath  as  the  life, 
and  as  the  form  of  the  interior  being,  and  in  many  languages  the 
words  for  '  soul '  and  '  spirit '  are  derived  from  the  word  for 
'  breath  '-1  The  breath  and  therefore  the  soul  of  a  dying  man  might 
be  received  (inhaled)  by  any  person  present ;  it  was  sometimes 
obligatory  on  a  son  to  receive  his  father's  last  breath  —  he  there- 
by acquired  the  father's  qualities.2 

22.  Another  accompaniment  of  the  body  that  attracted  the 
attention  of  early  men  was  the  shadow,  for  which  the  science  of 
that  day,  unacquainted  with  optical  laws,  could  account  only  on 
the  supposition  that  it  was  a  double  of  the  man,  another  self,  a 
something  belonging  in  the  same  general  category  with  the  breath- 
soul,    though    usually  distinguished    from   it.3     The   shadow  was 


1  So  Semitic  nafs  'soul,'  ruh  'spirit';  Sanskrit  dtman  'soul,'  'self;  Greek 
psyche,  pneuma\  Latin  anima,  spiritus  \  possibly  English  ghost  (properly  gost 
'spirit');  and  so  in  many  low  tribes.  See  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  432  f . ; 
O.  Schrader,  in   Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  ii,   15. 

2  The  expression  '  to  receive  the  last  breath  '  (.Encid,  iv,  6S4  f.),  used  by  us  to  rep- 
resent the  last  pious  duty  paid  to  a  dying  man,  was  thus  originally  understood  in  a 
strictly  literal  sense.  3  So  the  Delaware  Indians  (Brinton,  The  Lcna/c,  p.  67). 


[2       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

regarded  as  a  sort  of  independent  objective  being,  which  might  be 
seized  and  destroyed,  for  example,  by  a  crocodile,  as  the  man 
passed  along  a  river  bank  ;  yet,  as  it  was  the  man,  its  destruction 
involved  the  man's  death.1  The  soul,  regarded  as  a  shadow,  could 
not  cast  a  shadow.  Similarly  one's  reflection  in  water  was  regarded 
as  a  double  of  him.2 

23.  Blood  was  known  by  observation  in  very  early  times  to  be 
intimately  connected  with  life,  acquired  the  mystery  and  sacredness 
that  attached  to  life,  and  has  played  a  great  part  in  religious  cere- 
monies.3 As  soul  is  life,  a  close  relation  between  blood  and  soul 
appears  in  the  thought  of  lower  and  higher  peoples,  though  the 
relation  is  not  always  the  same  as  that  described  above.  The  blood 
is  sometimes  said  to  be  the  soul,4  sometimes  the  soul  is  supposed 
to  be  in  the  blood  as  it  is  in  the  hair  or  any  other  part  of  the  body. 
Blood  could  not  be  regarded  as  the  soul  in  the  same  sense  in  which 
the  breath,  for  example,  was  the  soul  —  if  the  breath  departed  the 
man's  life  departed,  but  one  could  lose  much  blood  without  injury 
to  vital  power.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  relation  between 
the  two  should  be  precisely  defined  in  the  early  stages  of  society. 
If  Homer  at  one  time  speaks  of  the  soul  passing  away  through  a 
wound  and  at  another  time  of  the  blood  so  passing  (death  being 
the  result),5  this  variation  must  not  be  pressed  into  a  statement  of 
the  exact  identity  of  blood  and  soul.  By  the  Californian  Maidu  the 
soul  is  spoken  of  as  a  '  heart ',  apparently  by  reason  of  the  connec- 
tion of  the  heart  with  the  blood  and  the  life.6  There  is  to  be 
recognized,  then,  a  vague  identification  of  '  soul '  and  '  blood ' ;  but  in 

1  Cf.  the  name  'shade'  (Greeks,  Redmen,  and  others)  for  the  denizens  of  the 
Underworld. 

2  Photographs  are  now  looked  on  by  some  half-civilized  peoples  with  suspicion  and 
fear  as  separate  personalities  that  may  be  operated  on  by  magical  methods.  A  similar 
feeling  exists  in  regard  to  the  name  of  a  man  or  a  god  —  it  is  held  to  be  somehow 
identical  with  the  person,  and  for  this  reason  is  often  concealed  from  outsiders. 

3  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  402;  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  1st  ed.,  i,  178  f . ; 
article  "  Blood"  in  I  lastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

•>  So  in  the  Old  Testament,  in  the  later  ritual  codes  :  Deut.  xii,  23  ;  Lev.  xvii,  14  ; 
Hen.  ix,  4  ;  and  so  Ps.  lxxii,  14  ;  cf.  Koran,  xevi,  2  (man  created  of  blood). 

5  Iliad,  xiv,  518  ;  xvii,  86  ;  cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  p.  40  n. 
(Arabic  expression:  "Life  flows  on  the  spear-point"). 

6  R.  13.  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  259. 


THE  SOUL  13 

common  usage  the  two  terms  are  somewhat  differently  employed  — 
'soul'  is  the  vital  entity,  the  man's  personality, ' blood '  is  the  repre- 
sentative of  life,  especially  on  its  social  side  (kinsmen  are  of  "one 
blood,"  but  not  of  " one  soul'') l  and  in  offerings  to  the  deity.  Early 
man  seems,  in  fact,  to  have  distinguished  between  life  and  soul.2 

24.  As  the  soul  was  conceived  of  as  an  independent  being,  it 
was  natural  that  it  should  be  held  to  have  a  form  like  that  of  the 
external  body  —  it  could  not  be  thought  of  otherwise.3  This 
opinion  was  doubtless  confirmed  in  the  savage  mind  by  such  ex- 
periences as  dreams,  visions,  hallucinations,  and  illusions,  and  by 
such  phenomena  as  shadows  and  reflections.  The  dreamer  believed 
that  he  had  been  far  away  during  the  night,  hunting  or  fighting, 
and  yet  the  testimony  of  his  comrades  convinced  him  that  his  body 
had  not  left  its  place ;  the  logical  conclusion  was  that  his  inner  self 
had  been  wandering,  and  this  self,  as  it  seemed  to  him,  had  walked, 
eaten,  hurled  the  spear,  done  all  that  the  ordinary  corporeal  man 
would  do.  In  dreams  he  saw  and  conversed  with  his  friends  or  his 
enemies,  all  in  corporeal  form,  yet  all  of  them  asleep  in  their  several 
places ;  their  souls  also,  he  concluded,  were  wandering.  Even  in 
his  waking  hours,  in  the  gloom  of  evening  or  on  some  wide  gleam- 
ing plain,  he  saw,  as  he  thought,  shadowy  shapes  of  persons  who 
were  dead  or  far  away,  and  heard  mysterious  voices  and  other 
sounds,  which  he  would  naturally  refer  to  the  inner  self  of  the 
absent  living  or  the  dead.  Reproductions  of  himself  and  others 
appeared  on  land  and  in  water.  All  such  experiences  would  go  to 
convince  him  that  there  were  doubles  of  himself  and  of  others,  and 
that  these  were  corporeal  —  only  dim,  ethereal,  with  powers  greater 
than  those  of  the  ordinary  external  body. 

25.  While  the  soul  of  the  living  man  was  most  commonly  con- 
ceived of  as  a  sublimated  replica  of  the  ordinary  body,  it  was  also 

1  So  friendly  (fraternal)  compacts  between  individuals  are  sealed  by  exchange  of 
blood,  whereby  the  parties  to  the  covenant  become  one  ;  many  examples  are  given  in 
H.  C.  Trumbull's  Blood-Covenant,  2d  ed. 

2  In  many  languages  (Semitic,  Sanskrit,  Greek,  Latin,  English,  German,  etc.) 
the  word  for  '  soul '  is  used  in  the  sense  of  '  person  '  or  !  self.'  But  the  conception 
of  "  life  "  was  in  early  times  broader  than  that  of  "  person  "  or  that  of  "  soul." 

3  An  incorporeal  or  immaterial  soul  has  never  been  conceivable. 


1 4       INTRi  WL  X  Tit  )JV  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

supposed  in  some  cases  to  take  the  form  of  some  animal  —  an 
opinion  that  may  have  arisen  as  regards  any  particular  animal  from 
its  appearance  at  a  time  when  the  soul  was  supposed  to  be  absent 
from  the  body,1  and  is  to  be  referred  ultimately  to  the  belief  in  the 
identity  of  nature  of  animals  and  man.  The  souls  of  the  dead  also 
were  sometimes  supposed  to  take  the  shape  of  animals,  or  to  take 
up  their  abode  in  animals2  or  in  trees  (as  in  Egypt) :  such  animals 
(tigers,  for  example)  were  commonly  dangerous,  and  this  theory  of 
incarnation  is  an  expression  of  the  widely  diffused  belief  in  the 
dangerous  character  of  the  souls  of  the  dead.  In  later,  cultivated 
times  the  bird  became  a  favorite  symbol  of  the  soul  —  perhaps 
from  its  swift  and  easy  flight  through  the  air.3 

26.  Savage  science,  though  it  generally  identified  the  soul  with 
the  breath,  and  regarded  it  as  a  separate  interior  form,  seems  not 
to  have  attempted  to  define  its  precise  locus,  posture,  and  extension 
within  the  body  —  the  early  man  was  content  to  regard  it  as  a 
vague  homunculus.  The  whole  body  was  looked  on  as  the  seat  of 
life,  and  was  sometimes  eaten  in  order  to  acquire  its  qualities, 
especially  the  quality  of  courage.4  Life  was  supposed  to  reside  in 
the  bones  as  the  solid  part  of  the  body,  and  these  were  preserved 

i  For  old-German  examples  see  Saussaye,  Religion  of  the  Teutons,  p.  297  ;  for 
Guiana,  E.  F.  im  Thurn,  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xi,  368;  com- 
pare the  belief  in  the  hidden  soul,  spoken  of  below,  and  article  ''Animals  "  in  Hast- 
ings, Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

-  So  the  bush-soul  or  beast-soul  among  the  Ewe-speaking  peoples  of  West  Africa 
(A.  B.  Ellis,  The  Ewe-speaking  Peoples,  p.  103)  and  in  Calabar  (Kingsley,  West  African 
Studies).  Spirits  (Castren,  Finhische  Mythologie.  p.  1S6)  and  demons  (as  in  witchcraft 
trials)  sometimes  take  the  form  of  beasts.  For  American  Indian  examples  see  Brin- 
ton,  Myths  of  the  New  \\  'old,  p.  294. 

3  See  the  Egyptian  representations  of  the  soul  as  bird  (Ohnefalsch-Richter,  Ay- 
pros,  the  Bible  and  Homer,  pi.  cvi,  2  ;  cix,  4,  etc.)  ;  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civilization, 
p.  183,  compare  p.  109.  Other  examples  are  given  by  H.  Spencer,  Principles  of 
Sociology,  i,  355  ff. ;  N.  W.  Thomas,  in  Hastings,  Encyclopcedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics, 
i.  488.  <  >n  siren  and  ker  as  forms  of  the  soul  see  Miss  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the 
Study  of  Greek  Religion,  pp.  139,  197-217.    Cf.  Hadrian's  address  to  the  soul: 

Animula  vagula  blandula 
Hospes  comesque  corporis 
Quae  nunc  abibis  in  loca 
Pallidula  rigida  nudula 
Nee  ut  soles  dabis  jocos? 

■'*  The  body  is  spoken  of  as  the  person,  for  example,  in  Iliad,  i,  4 ;  Ps.  xvi,  9. 


THE  SOUL  15 

as  the  basis  of  a  future  life.1  But  even  in  early  stages  of  culture 
we  find  a  tendency  to  specialize  —  courage,  for  example,  was  as- 
signed particularly  to  the  head  and  the  heart,  which  were  accounted 
the  most  desirable  parts  of  a  dead  enemy.2  These  organs  were 
selected  probably  on  account  of  their  prominence  —  the  heart  also 
because  it  was  the  receptacle  of  the  blood.  The  soul  was  located 
by  the  Indians  of  Guiana  in  the  pupil  of  the  eye.3 

27.  Gradually  a  more  precise  localization  of  qualities  was  made 
by  the  Semites,  Greeks,  Romans,  and  other  peoples.  These,  for 
reasons  not  clearly  known  to  us,  assigned  the  principal  emotional 
faculties  to  the  most  prominent  organs  of  the  trunk  of  the  body. 
The  Semites  placed  thought  and  courage  in  the  heart  and  the  liver, 
anger  in  the  liver  (the  bile),  love  and  grief  in  the  bowels,  voluntary 
power  in  the  kidneys.4  The  Greeks  and  Romans  were  less  defi- 
nite :  to  the  heart,  the  diaphragm,  and  the  liver  (the  upper  half  of 
the  trunk)  the  Greeks  assigned  thought,  courage,  emotion;5  the 
Romans  placed  thought  and  courage  in  the  heart,  and  the  affec- 
tions in  the  liver.  Among  these  organs  special  prominence  came 
to  be  given  to  the  heart  and  the  liver  as  seats  of  mental  faculties.0 

28.  It  is  not  clear  how  early  the  brain  was  supposed  to  be  con- 
nected with  the  mind.  Alcmaeon  of  Crotona  (5th  cent.  B.C.),  who, 
according  to  Diogenes  Laertius,  wrote  chiefly  on  medical  subjects, 

.  is  credited  with  the  view  that  the  brain  was  the  constructor  of 
thought.7  Plato  suggests  that  the  brain  may  be  the  seat  of  percep- 
tion and  then  of  memory  and  reflection,  and  calls  the  head  the 
most  divine  part  of  man.8  Cicero  reports  that  some  persons  looked 
on   some  part  of  the  cerebrum   as  the  chief  seat  of  the  mind.9 

1  Hence  various  means  of  preserving  the  body  by  mummification,  and  the  fear  of 
mutilation. 

2  On  the  cult  of  skulls  in  the  Torres  Straits  and  Borneo  see  Haddon,  Head- 
hunters,  chap.  xxiv.  3  J.  II.  Bernan,  British  Guiana,  p.  134. 

4  See  Old  Testament  passim,  and  lexicons  of  the  various  Semitic  languages. 

5  An  elaborate  account  of  the  loci  of  qualities  is  given  by  Plato  in  the  Timteus, 
69  ff. 

6  On  the  importance  attached  to  the  liver  as  the  seat  of  life  see  Jastrow,  Aspects 
of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and .  Issyria,  p.  140  ff. 

"  Diels,  Fragmente  der  Vorsokratiker,  2d  ed.,  i,  10 1  f.,  quoted  in  Hastings,  En- 
cyclopedia of  Religion  and  Ethics,  article  "•  Brain  and  Mind." 

8  P/iado,  96  B  ;   Tinucus,  44.  9  Tusc.  Disp.  i,  9,  19  ;  cf.  Plautus,  Aulul.  ii,  1,  30. 


lb       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

In  the  Semitic  languages  the  first  occurrence  of  a  term  for  'brain'  is 
in  the  Arabic.1  Some  American  tribes  are  said  to  regard  the  brain 
as  the  seat  of  the  mind.'2  The  scientific  Greek  view  appears  to  have 
been  connected  with  medical  research,  but  the  process  by  which 
it  was  reached  has  not  been  recorded.  The  Arabic  conception  of 
the  brain  was  probably  borrowed  from  the  Greeks. 

29.  The  soul  as  an  independent  personality  was  supposed  to 
leave  the  body  at  times,  and  its  departure  entailed  various  conse- 
quences—  in  general  the  result  was  the  withdrawal  of  the  man's 
ordinary  powers  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  according  to  the  dura- 
tion of  the  soul's  absence.  The  consequences  might  be  sleep, 
trance,  swoon,  coma,  death;  the  precise  nature  of  the  effect  was 
determined  by  the  man's  subsequent  condition  —  he  would  wake 
from  sleep,  or  return  to  his  ordinary  state  from  a  trance,  or  come 
to  himself  from  a  swoon,  or  lie  permanently  motionless  in  death. 
When  he  seemed  to  be  dead  there  was  often  doubt  as  to  his  real 
condition  —  the  escaped  soul  might  seek  its  old  abode  (as  in  the 
case  of  the  vampire,  for  instance),  and  means  were  sometimes 
taken  to  prevent  its  return.3 

30.  The  obvious  difference  in  serious  results  between  sleep  and 
other  cessations  of  the  ordinary  consciousness  and  activity  led 
among  some  tribes  to  the  supposition  of  a  special  dream-soul  that 
could  leave  the  body  without  injury  to  the  man.  It  was  believed 
by  certain  Greenlanders 4  that  a  man  going  on  a  journey  might 
leave  his  soul  behind.  It  was  a  not  uncommon  opinion  that  souls 
might  be  taken  out  for  a  while,  with  friendly  intent,  to  guard  them 
during  a  period  of  danger  (so  in  Celebes  when  a  family  moves  into 
a  new  house).  In  Greenland,  according  to  Cranz,  a  damaged  soul 
might  be  repaired.  Or  the  soul  might  be  removed  with  evil  intent 
by  magic  art  —  the  result  would  be  sickness  or  swoon ;  it  was 
then  incumbent  on  the  sufferer  or  his  friends  to  discover  the  hostile 
magician  and  counteract  his  work  by  stronger  magic,  or  force  him 

1  Arabic  diving  appears  to  mean  '  marrow,'  but  how  early  it  was  employed  for 
'brain  ;  is  uncertain. 

2  Waitz,  Anthropologic,  iii,  225  ;  cf.  Roger  Williams,  Language  of  America,  p.  86. 
8  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  iv  (the  Karens). 

4  Cranz,  Greenland  (Eng.  tr.),  i,  1S4. 


THE  SOUL  iy 

to  restore  the  soul.1  On  the  other  hand,  the  soul  of  a  dead  man 
might  be  so  recalled  that  the  man  would  live  again,  the  usual 
agency  being  a  god,  a  magician,  or  a  prophet. 

31.  It  has  been  and  is  a  widespread  opinion  in  low  tribes  that 
the  life  of  a  person  is  bound  up  with  that  of  an  animal  or  plant, 
or  with  the  preservation  of  something  closely  connected  with  the 
person.  This  opinion  springs  from  the  conviction  of  the  intimate 
vital  relation  between  men  and  their  surroundings.  From  the  com- 
bination of  these  beliefs  with  the  view  referred  to  above2  that  a 
man's  soul  might  dwell  in  a  beast  or  a  plant,  the  idea  of  the  hidden 
soul,  common  in  folk-lore,  may  have  arisen  3  —  the  idea  that  one 
might  conceal  his  soul  in  some  unsuspected  place  and  then  would 
be  free  from  fear  of  death  so  long  as  his  soul  remained  undis- 
turbed.4 These  folk-tales  are  products  of  the  popular  imagination 
based  on  materials  such  as  those  described  above.  From  the  early 
point  of  view  there  was  no  reason  why  the  vital  soul,  an  independ- 
ent entity,  should  not  lead  a  locally  separate  life. 

2.  Origin  of  the  Soul 

32.  Theories  of  a  special  origination  of  the  soul  belong  only  to 
the  more  advanced  cults.  In  early  stages  of  culture  the  soul  is 
taken  as  a  natural  part  of  the  human  constitution,  and  though  it  is 
regarded  as  in  a  sort  an  independent  entity,  the  analysis  of  the 
man  is  not  carried  so  far  as  to  raise  the  question  of  separate  be- 
ginnings of  the  two  constituents  of  the  personality,  except  as  this 
is  partially  involved  in  the  hypothesis  of  reincarnation.  The  child 
is  born  into  the  world  equipped  with  all  the  capacities  of  man,  and 
further  investigation  as  to  how  these  capacities  originally  came  is 
not  made. 

33.  It  was,  however,  thought  necessary  to  account  for  the  ap- 
pearance of  man  (a  clan  or  tribe)  on  earth,  and  his  creation  was 
generally  ascribed  to  a  supernatural   being.     Every  tribe  has  its 

1  Examples  in  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  chap.  ii.  2  §  25. 

3  For  folk-tales  of  the  hidden  '  external '  soul  see  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed., 
iii,  389  ff . 

4  The  coyote  (in  Navaho  Legends,  by  W.  Matthews,  p.  91)  kept  his  vital  soul  in 
the  tip  of  his  nose  and  in  the  end  of  his  tail. 


1 8       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

history  of  man's  creation  —  the  variety  in  the  anthropogonic  myths 
is  endless,  the  diversities  depending  on  the  differences  of  general  cul- 
ture and  of  surroundings  ;  but  the  essential  point  is  the  same  in  all : 
some  god  or  other  supernatural  Power  fashioned  human  creatures  of 
different  sex,  whether  with  well-considered  aim  or  by  caprice  is  not  said. 

34 .  The  first  pair  is  thus  accounted  for  in  a  simple  and  generally 
satisfactory  manner.  But  the  fact  of  the  perpetuation  of  the  tribe 
or  the  race  appears  to  have  offered  serious  difficulties  to  the  savage 
mind.  Some  tribes  are  reported  to  be  ignorant  of  the  natural  cause 
of  birth.  Some  Melanesian  women  believe  that  the  origin  or  begin- 
ning of  a  child  is  a  plant  (coconut  or  other),  and  that  the  child  will 
be  the  nunu  (something  like  an  echo)  of  that  thing  or  of  a  dead  per- 
son (this  is  not  the  transition  of  a  soul  —  the  child  takes  the  place 
of  the  dead  person).  In  Mota  there  is  a  similar  belief.1  The  Central 
Australians,  it  is  said,  think  that  the  birth  of  a  child  is  due  to  the  en- 
trance of  a  spirit  into  the  body  of  a  woman 2  —  every  child  is  thus 
the  reincarnation  of  some  ancient  person  (an  "ancestor"),  and  the 
particular  person  is  identified  by  the  sacred  object  (stone  or  tree,  or 
other  object)  near  which  the  woman  is  when  she  first  becomes  aware 
of  the  child  within  her ;  every  such  object  (and  there  are  many  of 
them  near  any  village)  represents  some  spirit  whose  name  is  known 
to  the  old  men  of  the  tribe,  and  this  name  is  given  the  child.3 

35.  Similar  theories  of  birth  are  found  among  the  Eskimo4  and 
the  Khonds,5  in  Melanesia,6  in  West  Africa,7  and  elsewhere.8    Such 

1  Journal  of the  Anthropological  Institute,  xviii,  310. 

-  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  124.  Andrew  Lang 
(in  Anthropological  Essays  /-resented  to  R.  B.  Tylor)  holds  that  this  Australian  view 
comes  not  from  ignorance  but  from  the  desire  to  assign  a  worthy  origin  to  man  in  dis- 
tinction from  the  lower  animals.  Some  tribes  in  North  Queensland  think  that  the  latter 
have  not  souls,  and  are  born  by  sexual  union,  but  the  human  soul,  they  say,  can  come 
only  from  a  spiritual  being.   Decision  on  this  question  must  await  further  information. 

3  Spencer  and  Gillen,  loc.  cit.  4  Journal  of  American  Folklore,  xvii,  4. 

5  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  530  (the  child  is  the  returned  soul  of  an  ancestor). 

6  Codrington,  Mclancsians,  p.  154  (a  spirit  child  enters  a  woman);  cf.  Journal  of 'the 
.  Xmerican  Oriental  Society,  viii,  297  (the  Nusairi),  and  Lyde,  in  Curtiss,  Primitive  Se- 
mitic Religion  To-day,  p.  1 15  ;  Hartland,  Primitive  Paternity,  i,  50,  and  chap.  3  passim. 

7  A.  B.  Ellis,  The  Ewe-speaking  Peoples,  p.  15  ;   The  Tshi-spcaking  Peoples,  p.  18. 

8  For  the  belief  that  the  soul  of  the  child  comes  from  the  shades  see  Journal  of 
American  Folklore,  xiv,  83.  Further,  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  chap,  xii ;  Lang,  in 
article  cited  above  ;  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  ii.  96. 


THE  SOUL  19 

views  thus  appear  to  have  been  widely  diffused,  and  are  in  fact  a 
natural  product  of  early  biological  science.  They  embody  the  earliest 
known  form  of  the  doctrine  of  reincarnation,  which  is  so  important 
in  the  Buddhistic  dogma.1  With  it  must  be  connected  the  fact  that 
among  many  peoples  (savage,  half-civilized,  and  civilized)  birth  was 
intimately  connected  with  supernatural  beings,  whence  the  origin 
of  numerous  usages :  the  precautions  taken  to  guard  the  woman 
before  delivery,  the  lustrations  after  the  birth,  the  couvade,  the 
dread  of  menstrual  and  seminal  discharges,  and  further,  customs 
relating  to  the  arrival  of  boys  and  girls  at  the  age  of  puberty. 

36.  At  a  later  stage  of  culture  the  creation  of  the  soul  was  dis- 
tinguished from  that  of  the  body,  and  was  generally  regarded  as  a 
special  act  of  the  deity :  the  Hebrews  conceived  that  the  body  was 
fashioned  out  of  dust,  and  that  the  breath  of  life  was  breathed  into 
it  by  God,  so  that  man  became  a  "  living  soul " 2 ;  Plato  at  one 
time  3  thought  that  the  soul  of  the  world  was  created  by  God,  out 
of  certain  elements,  before  the  body,  and  was  made  prior  to  it  in 
origin  and  excellence  so  that  it  should  be  its  ruler,  and  that  after- 
wards he  placed  separate  souls  in  the  various  separate  bodies  ;  the 
immortal  gods,  says  Cicero,  have  placed  souls  (animos)  in  human 
bodies,  and  the  human  soul  has  been  plucked  (decerptus)  from  the 
divine  mind.4 

37.  In  the  early  Christian  centuries  the  question  of  how  the 
soul  came  into  the  body  was  an  intensely  practical  one  —  it  was 
closely  connected  with  the  question  of  man's  inherent  sinfulness 
and  his  capacity  for  redemption.  Tertullian's  theory  of  the  natural 
propagation  of  souls  (traducianism),  which  involved  the  inheritance 
of  a  sinful  nature,  was  succeeded  on  the  one  hand  by  the  theory 
of  preexistence  (adopted  by  Origen  from  Plato),  and  on  the  other 
hand  by  the  view  that  every  soul  was  an  immediate  creation  of 


1  Possibly  a  survival  of  the  theory  is  to  be  recognized  in  the  custom,  prevalent 
among  some  peoples,  of  naming  a  male  child  after  his  grandfather ;  examples  are 
given  in  Gray,  Hebrew  Proper  Xar/ies,  p.  2  f.  All  such  theories  appear  to  rest  on  a 
dim  conception  of  the  vital  solidarity  of  the  tribe  or  clan  —  the  vital  force  is  held  to 
be  transmissible  ;  cf.  the  idea  of  mana,  a  force  inherent  in  things. 

2  Gen.  ii,  7  ;  cf.  Ezek.  xxxvii,  10.  3  Ti/naies,  34  f. 
4  De  Sen.  21,  77  ;   Tusc.  Disp.  v,  13,  38. 


20       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

God  (creationism,  held  by  Jerome  and  others),  these  both  assuming 
the  natural  goodness  or  untainted  character  of  the  soul  at  the  birth 
of  the  human  being. 

38.  The  mysterious  character  of  death,  the  final  departure  of 
the  soul  from  the  body,  called  forth  in  savage  communities  feelings 
of  awe  and  dread.  As  death,  in  the  savage  view,  was  due  to  the 
intervention  of  a  supernatural  agency,  the  dead  body  and  every- 
thing connected  with  it  partook  of  the  sacredness  that  attached  to 
the  supernatural.1  Hence,  probably,  many  of  the  customs  relating 
to  the  treatment  of  corpses  —  taboos  that  survived  into  compara- 
tively late  times.2  The  Old  Testament  ritual  term  '  unclean '  is 
used  of  corpses  and  other  things  that  it  was  unlawful  to  touch, 
things  taboo,  and  in  this  sense  is  equivalent  to  '  sacred.'3 

3.    POLYPSYCHISM 

39.  In  the  preceding  section  only  the  general  fact  of  the  existence 
of  the  soul  is  considered.  We  find,  however,  a  widespread  belief 
among  savage  and  half-civilized  peoples  that  every  human  body  is 
inhabited  by  several  souls  (two  or  more).4  Thus,  the  Fijians,  the 
Algonkins,  and  the  Karens  recognize  two  souls ;  the  Malagasy, 
the  Dahomi,  and  the  Ashanti  three ;  the  Congoans  three  or  four, 
the  Chinese  three,  the  Dakotas  four,  the  Malays  (of  the  peninsula) 
seven ;  and  this  list  is  not  exhaustive.5  To  these  various  souls 
different  procedures  and  functions  are  assigned. 

1  The  term  '  sacred  '  in  early  thought  has  no  ethical  significance  ;  it  involves  only 
the  idea  that  an  object  is  imbued  with  some  superhuman  quality,  and  is  therefore 
dangerous  and  not  to  be  touched. 

2  On  modes  of  burial,  see  article  "  Funerailles  "  in  La  Grande  Ency elope die. 
Other  considerations,  however  (hygienic,  for  example),  may  have  had  influence 
on  the  treatment  of  corpses. 

:!  In  the  Talmud  the  books  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  are  said  to  "  defile  the  hands," 
that  is,  they  are  taboo  (Yadaim,  Mishna,  3,  5). 

4  The  lower  animals  also  are  sometimes  credited  with  more  than  one  soul :  so  the 
bear  among  the  Sioux  (Charlevoix,  Nouvelle  France,  vi,  28  ;  Schoolcraft,  Indian 
Tribes  of  t/ic   United  States,  iii,  229). 

5  Williams,  Fiji,  i,  241  ;  Tyler,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  434,  cf.  Brinton,  The  Lcnapc, 
p.  69  ;  Cross,  in  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  iv,  310  (Karens);  W.  Ellis, 
Madagascar,  i,  393;  A.B.Ellis,  The  Ear-speaking  Peoples,  p.  114,  and  The  Tshi- 
sf  caking  Peoples,  p.  149  ff . ;  Kingsley,  West  African  Studies,  p.  200  ff . ;  Skeat,  Malay 
Magic,  p.  50. 


THE  SOUL  21 

40.  In  general,  as  to  place  and  function  during  the  man's  life, 
the  following  classes  of  souls  are  distinguished  :  the  vital  soul,  or  the 
principle  of  life,  whose  departure  leayes  the  man  insensible  or  dead 
(Malagasy  aina,  Karen  kalah.  Ewe  'ghost-soul');  the  dream-soul, 
which  wanders  while  the  man  is  asleep  (probably  a  universal  con- 
ception in  early  stages  of  culture)  ;  the  shadow-soul,  which  accom- 
panies him  by  clay  (also,  probably,  universal)  ;  the  reflection-soul 
(similar  to  the  preceding) ;  the  beast-soul,  or  bush-soul,  incarnate  in 
a  beast  (among  the  Congoans,  the  E\ve,  the  Tshi,  the  Khonds),  with 
which  may  be  compared  the  Egyptian  view  that  revenant  souls  and 
Underworld  shadows  may  assume  the  form  of  animals,  and  the 
Hindu  metempsychosis.  A  particular  responsible  moral  soul  is  also 
reported  (among  the  Karens),1  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  this  is 
native ;  and  still  more  doubtful  are  the  Karen  '  reason '  (tsd)  and 
the  Khond  beatified  soul.'2 

41.  In  regard  to  procedure  after  the  man's  death,  it  is  generally 
held  in  early  stages  of  culture  that  one  soul  stays  with  the  body, 
or  at  the  tomb,  or  in  the  village,  or  becomes  air,  while  another  departs 
to  the  land  of  the  dead  (Fijians,  Algonkins,  and  others),  or  is  reborn 
(Khonds),  and  in  some  cases  a  soul  is  said  to  vanish.3 

42.  It  is  obvious  that  there  was  great  flexibility  and  indefiniteness 
in  early  theories  of  the  soul.  The  savage  mind,  feeling  its  way 
among  its  varied  experiences,  was  disposed  to  imagine  a  separate 
interior  substance  to  account  for  anything  that  seemed  to  be  a 
separate  and  valuable  manifestation  of  the  man's  personality.  The 
number  of  souls  varies  with  the  number  of  phenomena  that  it  was 
thought  necessary  to  recognize  as  peculiar,  and  the  lines  of  demar- 
cation between  different  souls  are  not  always  strictly  drawn.  As  to 
the  manner  of  the  souls'  indwelling  in  the  body,  and  as  to  their 
relations  one  to  another,  savages  have  nothing  definite  to  say,  or,  at 
least,  have  said  nothing.  In  general  our  information  regarding  savage 
psychical  theories  is  meager  ;  it  is  not  unlikely  that  with  fuller  ac- 
quaintance the  details  given  above  would  have  to  be  modified,  though 
the  general  fact  of  polypsychism  would  doubtless  remain. 

1  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  iv,  310. 

2  Cf.  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  530.  3  See  below,  §  46  ff. 


22       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

43.  In  the  higher  ancient  religions  there  are  only  more  or  less 
obscure  indications  of  an  earlier  polypsychic  system.  The  Egyptian 
distinction  between  soul  (bai),  shadow  (Jiaibet),  and  double  (ka) 
appears  to  involve  such  a  system ;  but  the  Egyptologists  of  the 
present  day  are  not  agreed  as  to  the  precise  interpretation  of  these 
terms.1  The  Semitic  terms  nafs  and  ruh  (commonly  rendered  '  soul ' 
and  'spirit '  respectively)  are  of  similar  origin,  both  meaning  '  wind/' 
'  breath ' ;  in  the  literature  they  are  sometimes  used  in  the  same 
^ense,  sometimes  differentiated.  The  '  soul '  is  the  seat  of  life, 
appetite,  feeling,  thought — when  it  leaves  the  body  the  man  swoons 
or  dies  ;  it  alone  is  used  as  a  synonym  of  personality  (a  '  soul '  often 
means  simply  a  'person  ').  *  Spirit,'  while  it  sometimes  signifies  the 
whole  nature,  is  also  employed  (like  English  '  spirit ')  to  express  the 
tone  of  mind,  especially  courage,  vigor.  But,  so  far  as  the  conception 
of  an  interior  being  is  concerned,  the  two  terms  are  substantially 
identical  in  the  Semitic  languages  as  known  to  us.2  And  though, 
as  is  noted  above,  '  spirit '  is  not  used  for  the  human  personality,  it 
alone  is  the  term  in  Hebrew  for  a  class  of  subordinate  supernatural 
beings  standing  in  close  relations  with  the  deity.3  Greek  literature 
seems  to  know  only  one  personal  soul  {psyche,  with  which  pneuma  is 
often  identical  in  meaning)  ;  a  quality  of  nature  (as  in  Semitic  ruJi) 
is  sometimes  expressed  by  pneuma  (*  spirit  ').4  The  thymos  appears 
in  Homer  to  be  merely  a  function  of  the  psyche?  in  any  case  it  does 
not  represent  a  separate  personality  alongside  of  the  psyche,  and  the 
same  thing  is  true  of  the  daimon.    Similarly,  in  Latin,  animus  and 

1  See  Maspero  (1897),  Dawn  of  Civilization,  p.  10S  f. ;  W.  M.  Miiller  in  En- 
cyclopedia Biblica,  article  "Egypt";  Petrie,  Religion  and  Conscience  in  Ancient 
Egypt,  pp.  30  ff.,  48  ff. ;  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  63  f. ;  Erman,  Handbook  of 
Egyptian  Religion,  pp.  86  f.,  108;   Wiedemann,  Religion   of  the  Ancient  Egyptians, 

P-  234  ff. 

2  R.  H.  Charles  in  his  Eschatology,  Hebrew,  fewish,  and  Christian,  p.  153,  holds 
that  the  Hebrews  made  a  distinction  between  soul  and  spirit  (the  former  being 
"living"  only  when  the  latter  is  present),  and  that  the  recognition  of  this  distinction 
is  necessary  for  the  understanding  of  the  Old  Testament  conception  of  immortality. 
His  discussion  is  valuable  if  not  convincing.  3  1  Kings  xxii,  21  f. 

4  For  the  New  Testament  usage  see  1  Cor.  vi,  17  ;  2  Cor.  iv,  21  ;  xii,  18  ;  Luke 
ix.  5  3  (in  some  MSS.)  ;  Rev.  xix,  10  ;  John  vi,  63.  Cf.  Grimm,  Greek-English  Lexicon 
of  the  New  Testament,  ed.  J.  H.  Thayer,  s.  w.  pneuma  and  psyche. 

5  Cf.  Rohde,  Psyche,  3d  ed.,  i,  45  n. ;  ii,  141,  n.  2. 


THE  SOUL  23 


& 


anima  are  substantially  synonyms  1  —  animus  sometimes  expressin 
tone  of  mind  —  and  spiritus  is  equivalent  to  ruh  and  pneuma  ;  the 
individual  genius,  with  its  feminine  representative  the  jinio,  is  a 
complicated  and  obscure  figure,  but  it  cannot  be  regarded  as  a 
separate  soul.2 

44.  This  variety  of  terms  in  the  more  advanced  religions  may 
point  to  an  early  polypsychic  conception.  The  tendency  was,  with 
the  progress  of  culture,  to  modify  or  efface  this  sort  of  conception.'5 
From  a  belief  in  a  number  of  entities  in  the  human  interior  being 
men  passed  to  a  recognition  of  different  sides  or  aspects  of  the 
inward  life,  and  finally  to  the  distinct  conception  of  the  oneness  of 
the  soul.  The  movement  toward  psychic  unity  may  be  compared 
with  the  movement  toward  monotheism  by  the  unification  of  the 
phenomena  of  the  external  world. 

4.  Future  of  the  Soul 

45.  Savage  philosophy,  recognizing  the  dual  nature  of  man, 
regarded  death  as  due  to  the  departure  of  the  soul  from  the  body. 
The  cessation  of  breathing  at  death  was  matter  of  common  obser- 
vation, and  the  obvious  inference  was  that  the  breath,  the  vital  soul, 
had  left  the  body.  Reflection  on  this  fact  naturally  led  to  the  ques- 
tion, Whither  has  the  soul  gone  ? 

46.  Death  of  the  soul.  The  general  belief  has  always  been  that 
the  soul  survived  the  man's  death.4  There  are,  however,  excep- 
tions; the  continued  existence  of  the  soul  was  not  an  absolutely 
established  article  in  the  savage  creed.  According  to  the  reports  of 
travelers,  it  would  seem  that  among  some  tribes  there  was  disbelief 
or  doubt  on  this  point.    A  West  African  native  expressed  his  belief 

1  In  philosophical  thought  the  two  are  sometimes  distinguished  :  the  anima  is  the 
principle  of  life,  and  the  animus  of  thinking  mind  (Lucretius,  iii,  94-141). 

2  A  curious  resemblance  to  the  cult  of  the  'genius'  is  found  in  the  Ewe  (Da- 
homi)  custom  of  consecrating  a  man's  birthday' to  his  "indwelling  spirit"  (A.  B. 
Ellis,  The  Ewc-spcaking  Peoples,  p.  105).  Compare  Horace's  designation  of  the  genius 
as  'naturae  deus  humanae '  (£/.  ii,  2,  188),  and  Servius  on  Verg.,  Georg.  i,  302. 

3  So  in  Plato  and  Aristotle,  and  in  Brahmanism. 

4  The  evidence  for  this  belief  is  found  in  hundreds  of  books  that  record  observa- 
tions of  savage  ideas,  and  it  is  unnecessary  to  cite  particular  examples. 


24       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

in  the  form  of  the  general  proposition,  "  The  dead  must  die  " ;  that  is, 
apparently,  the  dead  man  must  submit  to  the  universal  law  to  which 
the  living  are  subject.1  In  another  African  community  some  held 
and  others  denied  that  a  spirit  could  be  killed,  and  one  man  was 
certain  that  spirits  lived  long,  but  was  not  certain  whether  they  ever 
died.2  Differences  of  opinion  in  regard  to  the  fact  of  immortality 
are  said  to  exist  in  Banks  Islands.3  The  Eskimos  are  reported  as 
holding  that  the  soul  may  be  destroyed,  and  then,  however,  repaired.4 

47.  It  thus  appears  that  even  among  low  tribes  there  is  specula- 
tion on  the  question  of  the  continuance  of  existence  after  earthly 
death ;  there  is  admission  of  ignorance.  We  have,  however,  ex- 
amples of  a  definite  belief  in  annihilation.  In  some  cases,  when  the 
theory  of  several  souls  is  held,5  one  of  these  souls  is  supposed  to 
become  extinct  at  death :  this  is  the  case  with  the  Malagasy  sain  a, 
and  the  '  beast-soul'  among  the  Ewe,  Tshi,  and  Congoans ;  but 
such  a  soul  represents  only  a  part  of  the  man,  and  its  disappearance 
does  not  signify  the  extinction  of  the  man's  personality. 

48.  Complete  extinction  of  the  soul  and  the  personality,  in  the 
case  of  certain  persons,  is  found  among  the  Fijians :  in  the  long 
and  difficult  way  to  the  Underworld,  bachelors  (as  a  rule),  untattooed 
women,  false  boasters,  and  those  men  who  failed  to  overcome  in 
combat  the  "  slayer  of  souls  "  (the  god  Sama)  are  killed  and  eaten.6 
Something  like  this  is  reported  of  the  Hervey  Islands,7  New  Zealand,8 
the  Hawaiians,9  and  other  tribes.  Among  the  wild  tribes  of  India, 
the  Khonds  and  the  Oraons,  or  Dhangars,  hold  to  annihilation  of 
the  soul  in  certain  cases.10  Miss  Kingsley  reports  a  specially  inter- 
esting view  in  Congo  to  the  effect  that  souls  die  when  the  family 
dies  out.11    The  ground  of  this  sense  of  the  solidarity  of  the  living 

1  Ellis,  The  Ewe-speaking  Peoples,  p.  108.  Cf.  Hinde,  The  Last  of  the  Masai,  p.  99. 

2  I).  Macdonald,  Africana,  i,  58  f. 

8  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  x,  283;  cf.  Codrington,  Mclancsians, 
p.  277.  4  Kink,  Talcs  of  the  Eskimo,  p.  36.  5  See  above,  §  41. 

6  Thomas  Williams,  Fiji,  i,  244.    Cf.  W.  Ellis,  Polynesian  Researches,  i,  303. 

7  Gill,  Myths  and  Songs  from  the  South  Pacific,  p.  160. 

8  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xix,  1 18  f. 

9  Jarves,  History  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  p.  42.  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  2d 
ed.,  ii,  22  f.,  and  Codrington,  The  Mclancsians,  p.  256  ff. 

10  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  530  f.  n  Kingsley,  Travels,  p.  444. 


THE  SOUL  25 

and  the  dead  is  not  clear ;  the  most  obvious  explanation  is  that  the 
latter  get  their  sustenance  from  the  offerings  of  the  former,  and 
perhaps  from  their  prayers ;  such  prayers,  according  to  W.  Ellis,1 
are  made  in  Polynesia.  This  belief  appears  also  in  some  advanced 
peoples:  so  the  Egyptians,2  and  apparently  the  Hindus/5 

49.  In  these  cases  no  explanation  is  offered  of  how  a  soul  can  die. 
Earthly  death  is  the  separation  of  the  soul  from  the  body,  and  by 
analogy  the  death  of  a  soul  should  involve  a  disruption  of  constitu- 
ents, but  the  savage  imagination  appears  to  have  passed  lightly  over 
this  point:  when  a  soul  is  eaten,  it  is  destroyed  as  the  human  body 
is  destroyed  when  it  is  eaten  ;  if  it  is  drowned  or  clubbed,  it  dies  as 
a  man  does  under  similar  treatment.  The  soul  is  conceived  of  as  an 
independent  personality,  with  a  corporeal  form  and  mental  powers  ; 
the  psychic  body,  it  would  seem,  is  endowed  with  power  of  thought.4 

50.  This  vagueness  of  conception  enables  us  to  understand  how 
savage  logic  reaches  the  conclusion  that  the  soul  may  be  mortal : 
all  the  possibilities  of  the  earthly  person  are  transferred  to  it.  In 
regard  to  the  occasion  of  its  death,  it  is  sometimes  represented  as 
punishment  for  violation  of  tribal  customs  (as  in  Fiji),  sometimes 
as  the  natural  fate  of  inferior  classes  of  persons  (as  among  the 
Tongans,  who  are  said  to  believe  that  only  chiefs  live  after  death),5 
sometimes  as  a  simple  destruction  by  human  agency. 

51.  In  the  popular  faith  of  the  Semitic,  Egyptian,  Chinese,  and 
Indo-European  peoples  there  is  no  sign  of  an  extinction  of  the 
personality  after  earthly  death.  The  Babylonian  dead  all  go  to  the 
vast  and  gloomy  Underworld  (Aralu),  where  their  food  is  dust,  and 
whence  there  is  no  return.6  The  Old-Hebrew  '  soul '  (nephesh) 
continues  to  exist  in  Sheol.  True,  its  life  is  a  colorless  one,  without 
achievement,  without  hope,  and  without  religious  worship ;  yet  it 

1  Polynesian  Researches,  p.  21S. 

2  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civilization,  pp.  112,  1S5. 

3  Taittiriya  Brahmana,  3,  11,  8,  5  ;  Catapatha  Brahmana,  12,  9,  3,  12.  Cf.  Bloom- 
field,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  p.  253. 

4  The  same  remark  holds  of  later  conceptions  of  the  departed  soul  and  of  deities. 

5  Mariner,  Tonga,  pp.  328,343.  Gods  also  die,  as  in  the  Egyptian  religious  creed 
(Maspero,  Dawn  9f  Civilization,  p.  m),  in  Greek  myths  and  folk-beliefs  (the  grave 
of  Zeus,  etc.),  and  in  the  Norse  myth  of  the  combat  of  the  gods  with  the  giants. 

6  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  chap.  xxv. 


26       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

has  the  marks  of  personality.1  The  fortunes  of  the  spirit  (ruh\ 
when  it  denotes  not  merely  a  quality  of  character  but  an  entity, 
are  identical  with  those  of  the  'soul.'2  In  India,  belief  in  life  after 
death  has  always  been  held  by  the  masses,  and  philosophic  systems 
conceive  of  absorption,  not  of  extinction  proper.  Zoroastrianism 
had,  and  has,  a  well-developed  doctrine  of  immortality,  and  the 
Egyptian  conception  of  the  future  was  equally  elaborate.  In  China 
the  cult  of  ancestors  does  not  admit  belief  in  annihilation.3  No 
theory  of  annihilation  is  found  in  connection  with  the  Greek  and 
Latin  'soul'  and  'spirit' {psyche^  pneuma ;  animus,  anima,  spiritus); 
the  thymos  is  not  a  separate  entity,  but  only  an  expression  of  the 
'  soul ' ; 4  and  the  Greek  daimon  and  the  Latin  genius  are  too  vague 
to  come  into  consideration  in  this  connection.5 

52.  Omitting  the  purely  philosophical  views  of  the  nature  and 
destiny  of  the  soul  (absorption  into  the  Supreme  God,  or  the 
Universal  Force,  is  to  be  distinguished  from  annihilation),  and 
the  belief  of  certain  Christian  sects  in  the  future  annihilation  of  the 
wicked  (based  probably  on  a  misunderstanding  of  certain  Biblical 
passages6),  it  may  be  said  that  the  role  of  the  theory  of  extinction 
of  the  soul  in  the  general  development  of  religion  has  been  an 
insignificant  one.  Beginning  among  the  lowest  tribes  as  an  ex- 
pression of  belief  in  the  universality  of  mortality,  it  assumed  a 
punitive  character  in  the  higher  savage  creed,  and  was  gradually 
abandoned  by  the  religions  of  civilized  peoples. 

53.  The  belief  in  the  continued  existence  of  the  soul,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  maintained  itself  from  the  earliest  known  times  to 

1  i  Sam.  xxvii,  n  f. ;  Ezek.  xxxii,  17  f. ;  Isa.  xiv,  9  f.  Eccl.  iii,  19  f.,  ix,  5,  6,  10, 
which  are  sometimes  cited  in  support  of  the  opposite  opinion,  belong  not  to  the 
Jewish  popular  belief,  but  to  a  late  academic  system  which  is  colored  by  Greek  skep- 
tical philosophy.  All  other  late  Jewish  books  (Apocrypha,  New  Testament,  Talmud) 
assume  the  continued  existence  of  the  soul  in  the  other  world.         2  See  above,  §  43. 

3  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  pp.130,  143  ff.,  396;  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhism, 
p.  11  iff. :  Spiegel,  Eranische  Altertht4mskun.de,  ii,  161  ff. ;  Wiedemann,  Egyptian 
Doctrine  of  Immortality  ;    De  Groot,  Religion  of  the   Chinese,  chap.  iii. 

4  On  the  Homeric  usage  see  Rohde,  Psyche,  as  cited  above,  §43. 

5  Several  early  Christian  writers  (Tatian, .  Iddress  to  the  Creeks,  13  ;  Justin,  Try / ho, 
cap.  vi)  held  that  souls  are  naturally  mortal,  but  these  views  did  not  affect  the  gen- 
eral Christian  position. 

6  Such  as  Ezek.  xviii,  4.    This  view  appears  in  Clementine  Homilies,  vii,  1. 


THE  SOUL  27 

the  present.  The  inquiry  into  the  grounds  of  this  survival  belongs 
to  the  history  of  the  doctrine  of  immortality,  and  will  not  be  pur- 
sued here  in  detail.1  Doubtless  it  has  been  the  increasing  sense  of 
the  dignity  of  human  nature,  the  conviction  of  the  close  connection 
of  human  life  with  the  divine,  and  the  demand  for  a  compensation 
for  the  sufferings  of  the  present  (together  with  the  instinctive  desire 
for  continued  existence)  that  has  led  men  to  retain  faith  in  the 
continued  life  of  the  soul.  Modern  beliefs  in  ghosts  and  in  spirit- 
ualistic phenomena  testify  to  the  persistence  of  this  article  of  faith. 

54.  Abode  of  the  surviving  soul?  Opinions  regarding  the  destiny 
of  the  surviving  soul  have  changed  from  time  to  time  in  accordance 
with  topographical  conditions  and  with  changes  in  intellectual  and 
moral  culture.  There  is  no  place  or  thing  on  or  under  or  above  the 
ground  that  has  not  been  regarded,  at  some  time  and  by  some  com- 
munities, as  its  abode.  The  selection  of  the  particular  thing  or  place 
has  been  determined  by  local  conditions  —  by  what  was  supposed  to 
be  observation  of  facts,  or  by  what  was  conceived  to-be  appropriate. 
The  obscurity  of  the  subject  has  allowed  free  play  to  savage  imagina- 
tion. The  paucity  of  data  makes  it  impossible  to  give  a  complete 
statement  of  the  views  that  have  been  held,  or  to  arrange  such  as  are 
known  in  accurate  chronological  order;  but  the  principal  opinions  may 
be  mentioned,  following  in  a  general  way  the  order  of  refinement.3 

55.  1.  One  of  the  earliest  (and  also  one  of  the  most  persistent) 
views  of  the  future  of  souls  is  that  they  are  reborn  or  reincarnated 
as  human  beings,  or  as  beasts  or  plants  or  inanimate  things.  It 
was  not  unnatural  that,  when  a  new  human  being  came  into  the 
world,  it  should  be  regarded  as  the  reproduction  of  a  former  human 
being,  especially  if  the  physiological  conditions  of  birth  were  not 
understood;4  the  basis  of  the  belief  may  have  been  the  general 
similarity  between  human  forms,  and,  in  some  cases,  the  special  simi- 
larity between  the  infant  or  the  adult  and  some  deceased  person. 

1  Cf.  W.  R.  Alger,  Critical  History  of  the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life;  Harvard 
Ingersoll  Lectures  on  "  The  Immortality  of  Man." 

2  Cf.  H.  Spencer,  Principles  of  Sociology,  i,  chap,  xv  ;  article  "  Blest,  abode  of  the," 
in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethifs. 

3  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  chap,  xii  f. 

4  Cf.  Hartland,  Primitive  Paternity,  i,  254,  and  chap.  iii. 


28       IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

An  extension  of  the  sphere  of  reincarnation  would  also  naturally 
arise  from  the  recognized  kinship  between  man  and  other  things, 
animate  or  inanimate. 

56.  Examples  of  these  views  are  found  in  many  parts  of  the 
world.  Tylor1  and  Marillier2  have  collected  instances  of  such  beliefs 
among  savage  tribes  in  the  Americas,  Africa,  Asia,  and  Oceania, 
as  well  as  in  higher  religions  (Brahmanism,  Buddhism,  Plato,  Mani, 
the  Jewish  Kabbala,  Swedenborg).3  Other  instances  of  belief  in 
rebirth  in  human  beings  or  in  animals  are  found  among  the  ancient 
Germans,4  the  people  of  Calabar,5  the  Torres  Straits  islanders,6 
the  Central  Australians,7  and  the  Yorubans.8 

57.  There  is  an  obvious  relation  between  the  belief  in  reincar- 
nation in  animal  form  and  the  worship  of  animals;9  both  rest  on 
the  assumption  of  substantial  identity  of  nature  between  man  and 
other  beings,  an  assumption  which  seems  to  be  universal  in  early 
stages  of  culture,  and  is  not  without  support  in  modern  philosophic 
thought.10  Ancient  belief  included  gods  in  this  circle  of  kinship  — 
a  view  that  appears  in  Brahmanism  and  the  later  Buddhism. 

58.  The  higher  forms  of  the  theory  introduced  a  moral  element 
into  the  process  of  reincarnation  —  the  soul  ascends  or  descends  in 
the  scale  of  being  according  to  the  moral  character  or  illumination 
of  its  life  on  earth.11  Thus  it  is  given  a  practical  bearing  on  every- 
day life  —  a  result  that  is  in  accordance  with  all  religious  history, 

1  In  Primitive  Culture,  chap.  xii.  2  In  La  survivance  de  PAme,  passim. 

3  See  also  the  discussion  of  the  subject  in  Alger,  op.  cit.  (in  §  53),  p.  62  f.  This 
work  contains  a  bibliography  of  the  future  state  (by  Ezra  Abbot)  substantially  com- 
plete up  to  the  year  1862.  4  Cf.  Saussaye,  Religion  of  the  Teutons,  p.  295  f. 

5  M.  Kingsley,  Studies,  p.  122  ;   Travels,  p.  445. 

6  Haddon,  Head-hunters,  p.  179  ff. 

7  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  Index,  s.v.  Alcheringa  ; 
id.,  Northern  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  271.         8  A.  B.  Ellis,  Yoruba,  p.  12S. 

9  Cf.  especially  the  Central  Australian  conception. 

10  It  is  involved  in  all  monistic  systems.  It  appears  also  to  be  silently  made  in  the 
Old  Testament :  the  lower  animals,  like  man,  are  vivified  by  the  "  breath  of  God  " 
(Ps.  civ,  29,  30  ;  cf.  Gen.  ii,  7  ;  vii,  22),  and  are  destroyed  in  the  flood  because  of  the 
wickedness  of  man  (Gen.  vi,  5-7) ;  cf.  also  Rom.  viii,  22. 

11  So  in  the  Upanishads  (but  not  in  the  poetic  Veda)  ;  see  Hopkins,  Religions  of 
India,  p.  227  ;  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  p.  257.  Tylor  {Primitive  Culture, 
ii,  18)  points  out  that  in  this  conception  we  have  a  suggestion  of  the  theory  of  devel- 
opment in  organic  life. 


THE  SOUL  29 

in  which  we  find  that  religious  faith  always  appropriates  and  utilizes 
the  ethical  ideas  of  its  time. 

59.  At  the  present  day  the  interest  in  the  hypothesis  of  reincar- 
nation springs  from  its  supposed  connection  with  the  doctrine  of 
immortality.  Brahmanists  and  Buddhists  maintain  that  it  is  the 
only  sure  basis  for  this  doctrine  ;  but  this  view  appears  not  to  have 
met  with  wide  acceptance. 

60.  2.  An  all  but  universal  belief  among  lower  tribes  is  that  de- 
parted souls  remain  near  their  earthly  abodes,  haunting  the  neigh- 
borhood of  the  body  or  the  grave  or  the  village.1  It  is  apparently 
assumed  that  a  soul  is  more  at  home  in  places  which  it  knew  in 
its  previous  life,  and  this  assumption  is  confirmed  by  sights  and 
sounds,  chiefly  during  the  night,  that  are  interpreted  as  the  forms 
and  utterances  of  wandering  souls. 

61.  Generally  no  occupation  is  assigned  to  these  ghosts,  except 
that  it  is  sometimes  supposed  that  they  seek  food  and  warmth  : 2 
scraps  of  food  are  left  on  the  ground  for  them,  and  persons  sitting 
around  a  fire  at  night  are  afraid  to  venture  into  the  dark  places 
beyond  lest  they  meet  them.3  For  it  is  a  common  belief  that  such 
souls  are  dangerous,  having  both  the  power  and  the  will  to  inflict 
injury.4  It  is  easy  to  see  why  they  should  be  supposed  to  possess 
extraordinary  powers.5  The  belief  in  their  maliciousness  may  have 
come  naturally  from  the  social  conditions  of  the  place  and  time : 
in  savage  communities  a  man  who  is  stronger  than  his  fellows  is 
likely  to  treat  them  as  his  savage  instincts  prompt,  to  seize  their 
property  or  kill  them ;  and  departed  souls  would  naturally  be 
credited  with  similar  dispositions. 

62.  It  is  also  true  that  the  mysterious  is  often  dreadful;  even 
now  in  civilized  lands  there  is  a  general  fear  of  a  '  ghost.'  Precau- 
tions are  taken  by  savages  to  drive  or  keep  the  soul  away :  the 

1  So  the  Central  Australians  (Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Aus- 
tralia, p.  514),  the  Californian  Maidu  (Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidie,  p.  246).  Cf.  the 
cases  in  which  precautions  are  taken  against  a  ghost's  entering  its  old  earthly  abode. 

2  Rig-Jrcda,  15.  3  Spencer  and  Gillen,  loc.  cit.  and  p.  516  f. 

4  Probably  the  Greek  ker  (i<VP)  and  the  Teutonic  '  nightmare,'  French  cauchemar 
{mara,  an  incubus,  or  succuba),  belong  in  this  class  of  malefic  ghosts. 

5  See  below,  §  92. 


30       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

doors  of  houses  are  closed,  and  noises  are  made.  On  the  other  hand, 
ghosts,  as  members  of  the  family  or  the  clan,  are  often  regarded  as 
friendly.1  Even  during  a  man's  lifetime  his  soul  may  be  a  sort  of 
guide  and  protector  —  may  attain,  in  fact,  the  rank  of  a  deity  ; 2  and 
after  death  it  may  become,  as  ancestor,  the  object  of  a  regular  cult. 

63.  Fear  of  ghosts  has,  perhaps,  suggested  certain  methods  of 
disposing  of  the  dead  body,  as  by  interring  or  exposing  it  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  village,  or  burning  it  or  throwing  it  into  the  water ; 

•other  considerations,  however,  as  is  suggested  above,3  may  deter- 
mine, in  whole  or  in  part,  these  methods  of  dealing  with  the  body. 

64.  3.  It  may  be  considered  an  advance  in  the  organization  of 
the  future  life  when  the  soul  is  supposed  to  go  to  some  distant 
place  on  the  earth  or  in  the  sea  or  in  the  sky.4  This  is  an  attempt 
to  separate  the  spheres  of  the  living  and  the  dead,  and  thus  at 
once  to  define  the  functions  of  the  dead  and  relieve  the  living  from 
the  fear  of  them.  The  land  of  the  dead  is  sometimes  vaguely 
spoken  of  as  lying  on  earth,  far  off  in  some  direction  not  precisely 
defined  —  east,  west,  north,  or  south  —  in  accordance  with  tradi- 
tions whose  origin  is  lost  in  the  obscurity  of  the  past. 

65.  Possibly  in  some  cases  it  is  the  traditional  original  home  of 
the  tribe ; 5  more  often,  it  would  seem,  some  local  or  astronomical 
fact  has  given  the  suggestion  of  the  place  ;  one  Egyptian  view  was 
that  the  western  desert  (a  wide  mysterious  region)  was  the  abode 
of  the  departed ;  it  was  a  widespread  belief  that  the  dead  went 
to  where  the  sun  disappeared  beneath  the  horizon.6  Tribes  living 
near  the  sea  or  a  river  often  place  the  other  world  beyond  the  sea 
or  the  river,7  and  a  ferryman  is  sometimes  imagined  who  sets  souls 

1  Steinmetz,  Ethnologische  Studicn  zur  erstcn  Entwicklung  der  Strafe,  i,  141  ff. 

2  For  West  Africa  see  above,  §  43,  n.  2  ;  for  the  Norse  fylgja  ('  follower  ')  cf.  Saus- 
s  iye,  Religion  of  the  Teutons,  p.  292  ff.  3  §  38,  n.  2. 

4  A  transitional  stage  is  marked  by  the  theory,  in  a  polypsychic  system,  that  one 
soul  remains  near  the  body  while  another  goes  to  the  distant  land. 

5  So,  perhaps,  among  the  eastern  Polynesians  (W.  Ellis,  Polynesian  Researches,  i, 
303)  and  the  Navahos  (Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  38). 

6  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civilization,  chap,  iii,  183  ff. ;  Teit,  Thompson  River  Indians, 
p.  85  ;  Rink,  Tales  of  the  Eskimo,  p.  40. 

"  Odyssey,  xi  (by  the  encircling  Okeanos)  ;  Williams,  Fiji,  p.  192  ;  Brinton,  Myths 
of  the  New  World,  p.  288  f . ;  Saussaye,  Religion  of  the  Teielons,  p.  290;  Rig- Veda, 
x,  63,  10  ;   ix,  41,  2. 


THE  SOUL  31 

over  the  water.1  Mountains  also  arc  regarded  as  abodes  of  the 
dead.2  It  is  not  unnatural  that  the  abodes  of  departed  souls  should 
be  placed  in  the  sky,  whose  height  and  brightness,  with  its  crowd 
of  luminous  bodies,  made  it  an  object  of  wonder  and  awe,  and 
caused  it  to  be  regarded  as  the  dwelling  place  of  the  happy  gods, 
with  whom  deserving  men  would  naturally  be.  Sometimes  the  ex- 
panse of  the  upper  air  was  regarded  as  the  home  of  souls  (as  in  Sa- 
moa), sometimes  a  heavenly  body  —  the  sun  (in  India),  or  the  moon 
(in  the  Bowditch  Islands),  or  the  stars.3  The  schemes  being  vague, 
several  of  these  conceptions  may  exist  side  by  side  at  the  same  place 
and  time. 

66.  The  occupations  of  the  dead  in  these  regions  are  held 
usually  to  be  the  same  as  those  of  the  living ;  no  other  view  is 
possible  in  early  stages  of  social  life.  Generally  all  the  apparatus 
of  earthly  life  (food,  utensils,  weapons)  is  placed  on  the  grave  or 
with  the  body,  and  wives  and  slaves  are  slain  to  be  the  companions 
of  the  deceased. 

67.  4.  A  more  decided  separation  between  the  living  and  the 
dead  is  made  in  the  conception  of  the  underground  world  as  the 
abode  of  the  latter.  It  was,  however,  only  at  a  late  period  that  this 
conception  was  carried  far  enough  to  make  the  separation  effective. 
Among  the  Central  Australians  there  were  folk-stories  of  early 
men  who  traveled  under  the  ground,  but  this  is  represented  as 
merely  an  extraordinary  way  of  getting  from  one  place  to  another 
on  the  surface  of  the  earth.  Some  North  American  tribes  tell  of 
an  underground  world  inhabited  by  the  ants  and  by  beings  similar 
to  man,  but  those  who  live  up  on  the  earth  are  seen  there  only  by 
accident,  as  when  some  hero  dares  the  descent.4  The  conception 
of  a   real   subterranean  or  submarine  hades  is  found,   however, 


1  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  65  ;  Charon;  Saussaye,  op.  cit.,  p.  290;  Rohde, 
Psyche,  3d  ed.,  i,  306.  For  the  story  given  by  Procopius  (De  Bell.  Goth,  iv,  20)  see 
Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  64  f.  2  Saussaye,  op.  cit.,  p.  291. 

3  Rig-Veda,  x,  154,  4,  5  ;  Lister  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xxi,  51 
(moon).  Cf.  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  64;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  pp. 
129,206;  Brmton,  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  284  ff. ;  Miiller,  Amerikanische  Urre- 
ligionen,  i,  288  ff.  ;  Saussaye,  op.  cit.,  p.  291  ;  Spencer,  Principles  of  Sociology,  i,  232  f. 

4  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  185  f. ;  Teit,  Thompson  River  Indians,  p.  7S. 


32       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

among  many  savage  and  barbarous  peoples,  as  the  Samoans,  the 
inhabitants  of  New  Guinea,  the  Zulus,  the  Navahos,  the  Eskimo, 
the  Kafirs  of  the  Hindu  Kush,  and  others.1 

68.  These  pictures  of  the  future  world  are  crude,  and  usually 
stand  side  by  side  with  others ;  they  are  experiments  in  escha- 
tology.  But  the  constructive  imagination  moved  more  and  more 
toward  an  organized  underground  hades  as  the  sole  abode  of  the 
dead  —  the  place  to  which  all  the  dead  go.    Such  a  hades  is  found 

^mong  the  civilized  peoples  of  antiquity,  Egyptians,  Semites,  Hin- 
dus, Greeks,  and  Romans,  and,  in  more  recent  times,  among  the 
Teutons  (Scandinavians).  The  suggestion  for  this  position  may 
have  come  from  the  grave  (though  it  does  not  appear  that  the 
grave  was  regarded  as  the  permanent  abode  of  the  dead),  and  from 
caverns  that  seemed  to  lead  down  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth. 
The  descent  of  souls  into  a  subterranean  world  offered  no  difficul- 
ties to  early  imagination :  ghosts,  like  the  Australian  ancestors,  could 
move  freely  where  living  men  could  not  go ;  where  there  was  no 
cavern  like  that  by  which  /Eneas  passed  below,2  they  could  pass 
through  the  ground. 

69.  A  lower  region  offered  a  wide  land  for  the  departed,  with  the 
possibility  of  organization  of  its  denizens.  Ghosts  gradually  lost  their 
importance  as  a  factor  in  everyday  life  ;  sights  and  sounds  that  had 
been  referred  to  wandering  souls  came  to  be  explained  by  natural 
laws.  Wider  geographical  knowledge  made  it  difficult  to  assign  the 
ghosts  a  mundane  home,  and  led  to  their  relegation  to  the  sub- 
mundane  region.  Further,  the  establishment  of  great  nations  famil- 
iarized men  with  the  idea  that  every  large  community  should  have 
its  own  domain.  The  gods  were  gradually  massed,  first  in  the  sky, 
the  ocean,  and  hades,  and  then  in  heaven.  For  the  dead  the  first 
organization  (if  that  term  may  be  allowed)  was  in  hades  ;  the  sepa- 
ration into  heaven  and  hell  came  later.  A  specific  divine  head  of 
the  Underworld  is  found  in  Egypt,  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  India, 


1  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  257  ;  Lawes  (on  New  Guinea),  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropo- 
logical Institute,  viii,  371  ;  Callaway,  '/.itlit  Nursery  Talcs,  p.  316;  Matthews,  Ntwaho 
Legends,  p.  215  ;  Rink,  Tales  of  the  Eskimo,  p.  37  ;  Sir  G.  S.  Robertson,  The  Kafirs 
of  the  Hbuln-Kush,  p.  380  f .  2  sE>ieid7  vi. 


THE  SOUL 


33 


Greece,  Rome,  but  not  in  Israel.  Such  a  definite  system  of  govern- 
ment could  exist  only  when  something  approaching  a  pantheon  had 
been  established  ;  the  Babylonians,  for  example,  whose  pantheon 
was  vague,  had  also  a  vague  god  of  hades. 

70.  Theories  of  the  occupations  of  the  dead  varied  in  the  early 
civilized  stage,  before  the  rise  of  the  idea  of  ethical  retribution  in 
the  other  life.  In  the  absence  of  earthly  relations,  imagination  could 
conceive  of  nothing  for  them  to  do,  and  hence  an  ardent  desire  for 
the  continuance  of  earthly  life.1  For  the  Hebrews  the  Underworld 
was  without  pursuits ;  the  shades  sat  motionless,  in  the  dress  and 
according  to  the  rank  of  the  upper  world,  without  emotions  or  aims 
(except  a  sparkle  of  malicious  satisfaction  when  some  great  man 
came  down  from  earth),  and  without  religious  worship.2  A  similar 
view  was  held  by  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans.  Certain  Egyptian 
documents  speak  of  mundane  occupations  for  the  dead,  but  these 
documents  belong  to  a  comparatively  late  stage  of  culture,  and  what 
the  earlier  view  was  we  do  not  know.3  Of  Hindu  ideas,  also,  on 
this  point  we  have  only  relatively  late  notices. 

71.  5.  A  radical  transformation  in  the  conception  of  the  state  of 
the  dead  was  effected  by  the  introduction  of  the  idea  of  moral  retri- 
bution into  the  life  of  the  Underworld.4  The  basis  of  the  movement 
was  the  natural  conception  of  life  as  determined  by  ethical  consider- 
ations, but  the  process  of  transformation  has  extended  over  thousands 
of  years  and  has  hardly  yet  reached  its  completion.  In  the  lowest  es- 
chatological  systems  known  to  us  there  is  no  marked  difference  in  the 
status  of  departed  souls ;  so  among  the  Central  Australians,  the  tribes 
of  New  Guinea  and  the  Torres  Straits  islands,  the  Zulus,  the  Mala- 
gasy, the  West  African  peoples,  and  some  North  American  tribes.5 

1  Odyssey,  xi,  489  ;  Isa.  xxxviii,  10  ff. ;  Prov.  iii,  16,  etc. 

2  1  Sam.  xxviii,  14;  Ezek.  xxxii,  19-32  ;  Isa.  xiv,  9-15  ;  xxxviii,  18.  For  the  early 
Babylonian  conception  of  the  Underworld  sec  the  Descent  of  Ishtar  (in  Jastrow, 
Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  chap,  xxv)  ;  S.  II.  Langdon,  "  Babylonian  Escha- 
tology,"  in  Essays  in  Modern  Theology  and  Related  Subjects  (the  C.  A.  Briggs  Memo- 
rial).     3  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  175.      4  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Cult  tire,  ii,  S3  ff. 

5  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia;  Callaway,  Amazulus, 
pp.  12,  151  f.  ;  W.  Ellis,  Madagascar,  \,  393  (cf.  J.  Sibree,  Madagascar,  p.  312)  ; 
A.  B.  Ellis,  The  Ewe,  p.  107  f.,  and  The  Tshi,  p.  156  ff. ;  M.  Kingsley,  Travels,  pp.  461, 
480 ;  R.  B.  Dixon,  The  Shasta,  p.  469, 


34 


INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


72 .  The  earliest  grounds  of  distinction  are  ritualistic  and  social ; 
these  occur  among  the  higher  savages  and  survive  in  some  civilized 
peoples.  The  Fijians  assign  punishment  in  the  other  world  to 
bachelors,  men  unaccompanied  by  their  wives  and  children,  cowards, 
and  untattooed  women.1  Where  circumcision  was  a  tribal  mark,  the 
uncircumcisecl,  as  having  no  social  status,  were  consigned  to  inferior 
places  in  hades :  so  among  the  Hebrews.2  The  omission  of  proper 
funeral  ceremonies  was  held  in  like  manner  to  entail  deprivation  of 
privilege  in  hades :  the  shade  had  an  undesirable  place  below,  as 
among  the  Babylonians  and  the  Hebrews,3  or  was  unable  to  enter 
the  abode  of  the  dead,  and  wandered  forlorn  on  the  earth  or  on  the 
border  of  the  Underworld,  as  was  the  Greek  belief.4  Exposure  of 
the  corpse  to  beasts  and  birds,  making  funeral  ceremonies  impos- 
sible, was  regarded  as  a  terrible  misfortune  for  the  dead.5 

73.  Such  of  these  beliefs  as  relate  to  violations  of  ritual  appear 
to  spring  from  the  view  that  the  tribal  customs  are  sacred,  and  from 
the  consequent  distinction  between  tribesmen  and  foreigners.  All 
persons  without  the  tribal  mark  were  shut  out  from  the  privileges 
of  the  tribe,  were  outlaws  in  this  world  and  the  next ;  and  those 
whose  bodies  were  not  properly  disposed  of  lost  the  support  of 
the  tribal  deities  or  of  the  subterranean  Powers.6  It  was  also  held 
that  the  body  retained  the  form  in  which  it  went  down  to  hades ; 7 
hence  the  widespread  dread  of  mutilation,  as  among  the  Chinese 
still.    On  the  other  hand  the  brave  were  rewarded.8 

74.  Sometimes  earthly  rank  determines  future  conditions  —  a 
natural  corollary  to  what  is  stated  above  (§72  f.).  A  distinction  is 
made  between  nobles  and  common  people  in  the  Bowditch  Islands.9 
The  members  of  the  Fijian  Areoi  Society  are  held  to  enjoy  special 
privileges  in  the  other  world.10  The  belief  in  the  Marquesas  Islands  is 
that  the  sky  is  for  high  gods  and  nobles.11  According  to  John  Smith, 

1  Williams,  Fiji,  p.  194.  2  Ezek.  xxxii,  23,  27  ;  Isa.  xiv,  15. 

3  Jastrow,  op.  cit.,  p.  6ot  ;  Ezek.  xxxii.  4  Iliad,  xxiii,  71. 

5  Jastrow,  op.  cit.,  p.  602  ;  Iliad,  i,  3  ff.  ;  2  Sam.  xxi,  10  ;  Prov.  xxx,  17. 

6  Hence  special  desire  for  sons,  who  were  the  natural  persons  to  perform  funeral 
rites  for  fathers.  "  So  also  Plato,  Gorgias,  80  (524). 

8  Hesiod,  Works  and  Days,  no.  9  Marillier,  La  survtvance  dc  lame. 

10  W.  Ellis,  Polynesian  Researches,  chap.  ix.  n  Marillier,  op.  cit. 


THE  SOUL 


35 


in  savage  Virginia  only  nobles  and  priests  were  supposed  to  survive 
after  death.1  The  North  American  Mandans  (of  Dakota),  accord- 
ing to  one  view,  assign  to  the  brave  in  the  hereafter  the  delightful 
villages  of  the  gods.2  When  souls  are  supposed  to  enter  into  animals 
different  animals  are  assigned  to  nobles  and  common  men.3  Kings 
and  nobles  retain  their  superiority  of  position  and  are  sometimes 
attended  by  their  slaves  and  officers.4 

75.  The  manner  of  death  is  sometimes  significant.  The  Karens 
hold  that  persons  killed  by  elephants,  famine,  or  sword,  do  not  enter 
the  abode  of  the  dead,  but  wander  on  the  earth  and  take  possession 
of  the  souls  of  men.5  In  Borneo  it  is  supposed  that  those  who  are 
killed  in  war  become  specters.6  The  belief  in  the  Marquesas  Islands 
is  that  warriors  dying  in  battle,  women  dying  in  childbirth,  and 
suicides  go  up  to  the  sky.7  In  regard  to  certain  modes  of  death 
opposite  opinions  are  held  in  the  Ladrone  (Marianne)  Islands  and 
the  Hervey  group  :  in  the  former  those  who  die  by  violence  are 
supposed  to  be  tortured  by  demons,  those  who  die  a  natural  death 
are  believed  to  be  happy ;  according  to  the  view  in  the  latter  group 
these  last  are  devoured  by  the  goddess  of  death,  and  the  others  are 
happy.  In  the  one  case  violent  death,  it  would  seem,  is  supposed  to 
be  due  to  the  anger  of  the  gods,  and  to  be  a  sign  of  something  bad 
in  the  man  ;  in  the  other  case  happiness  is  compensation  for  the  mis- 
fortune of  a  violent  death,  and  natural  death,  being  the  fate  of  ordi- 
nary people,  leaves  one  at  the  mercy  of  the  mistress  of  the  other  world. 

76.  The  advance'to  the  conception  of  moral  retribution  here- 
after could  take  place  only  in  communities  in  which  earthly  life 
was  organized  on  a  moral  basis.  The  beginning  of  the  movement  is 
seen  in  certain  savage  tribes.  Savages  have  their  codes,  which  gen- 
erally recognize  some  ethical  virtues  among  the  tribal  obligations. 

1  Smith,  Virginia,  p.  36. 

2  Will  and  Spinden,  The  Mandans  {Papers  of  (he  Pcabody  Museum  of  American 
Archeology  and  Ethnology,  Harvard  University),  p.  133. 

3  So  among  the  Betsileos  and  the  Zulus  (Marillier,  op.  cit.) 

4  So  in  Madagascar.    Cf.  Ezek.  xxxii,  18  ff. :   Isa.  xiv,  4  ff. 

5  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  iv,  312  f. 

6  S.  St.  John,  The  Far  East,  2d  ed.,  i,  1S2  f. ;  cf.  i,  1S4. 

"  Marillier,  op.  cit.  Here  suicide  appears  to  be  regarded  as  a  heroic  act,  and  the 
women  in  question  perish  in  doing  a  service  to  the  tribe. 


36       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Stealing,  lying,  failure  in  hospitality,  cowardice,  violation  of  mari- 
tal rights  —  in  general,  all  the  acts  that  affect  injuriously  the  com- 
munal life  —  are,  as  a  rule,  condemned  by  the  common  sense  of 
the  lowest  peoples,  and  the  moral  character  of  the  gods  reflects  that 
of  their  worshipers.  By  reason  of  the  sense  of  solidarity  the  faults 
of  individuals  affect  not  only  themselves  but  also  their  communities, 
and  the  gods  care  for  communities  as  well  as  for  individuals.  When- 
ever, then,  there  is  an  inquest  in  the  other  world,  these  faults,  it  is 
likely,  will  be  punished.  On  account  of  the  paucity  of  our  infor- 
mation, it  is  not  possible  to  make  a  general  statement  on  this  point, 
but  examples  of  future  moral  control  occur  in  many  savage  creeds.1 
In  such  systems  the  nature  of  the  life  beyond  the  grave  is  variously 
conceived :  sometimes  as  cheerless  and  gloomy  (as  in  Finland), 
sometimes  as  pleasant  (as  in  Samoa,  New  Guinea,  New  Caledonia, 
Bowditch  Islands,  some  North  American  tribes,  Brazil).2 

77.  In  tracing  the  growth  of  the  conception  of  distinctions  in 
the  other  world,3  we  find  first  a  vague  opinion  that  those  who  do 
badly  in  this  life  are  left  to  shift  for  themselves  hereafter ; 4  that 
is,  there  is  no  authority  controlling  the  lives  of  men  below.  In  the 
majority  of  cases,  however,  distinctions  are  made,  but  these,  as  is 
remarked  above,  are  based  on  various  nonmoral  considerations, 
and  have  small  cultural  value.5 

78.  In  the  published  reports  of  savage  beliefs  there  is  not  always 
mention  of  a  formal  examination  of  the  character  of  the  dead,  and 
probably  nothing  of  the  sort  was  imagined  by  the  lowest  tribes.  It 
appears,  however,  in  such  relatively  advanced  peoples  as  the  Fijians 6 
and  the  Khonds.7 

1  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  261  ;  Westermarck,  Moral  Ideas,  Index,  s.  v.  Fu- 
ture Life  ;  Mobhouse,  Morals  in  Evolution,  ii,  27 1  ff. ;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  83  ff. 

2  Castren,  Finnische  Mythologie,  p.  126  ;  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  259  ;  Lawes,  "  New 
Guinea,"  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  viii,  370  ;  Rochas,  Nouvclle  Cale- 
donie  (I  hi  lie/ in  dc  la  Societe  d anthropologic,  i860),  p.  2S0  ;  Lister,  Journal  of  the 
Anthropological  Institute,  xxi.  5  1  ;  Dixon,  op.  cit.,  p.  262  :  Miiller,  Amerikanische  Urre- 
ligionen,  p.  289  (Brazil). 

3  See  Westermarck,  loc.  cit.  4  Hawkins,  Creek  Country,  p.  80. 
5  For  details  on  this  point  see  L.  Marillier,  La  survivanec  de  Pame. 

,;  Williams  and  Calvert,  Fiji,  p.  193  f. 

t  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  1842,  p.  172,  and  1852,  p.  211  ;  Hopkins, 
Religions  of  India,  p.  530  f. 


THE  SOIL  37 

79.  Moral  retribution  proper  is  found  only  in  great  civilized 
nations  and  not  in  all  of  them  ;  the  early  Semites  appear  to  have 
retained  the  old  conception  of  punishment  for  ritual  faults  or  fail- 
ures, and  for  offenses  against  the  national  welfare.  For  the  Hebrews 
the  proof  is  found  in  the  Old  Testament  passim  ;  in  the  Babylonian 
and  Assyrian  literature,  as  far  as  published,  there  is  one  sign  of 
departure  from  the  scheme  sketched  in  the  Descent  of  Is/itar: 
Hammurabi  (ca.  2000  B.C.)  invokes  the  curses  of  the  gods  on 
any  one  who  shall  destroy  the  tablet  of  his  penal  code,  and  wishes 
that  such  a  one  may  be  deprived  of  pure  water  after  death.  \\\ 
regard  to  the  South  Arabians,  the  pre-Mohammedan  North  Arabians, 
and  the  Aramaeans,  we  have  no  information  ;  and  for  the  Phoe- 
nicians there  is  only  the  suggestion  involved  in  the  curse  invoked 
on  those  who  violate  a  tomb,  and  in  the  funeral  ceremonies.1  But 
the  same  general  religious  ideas  prevailed  throughout  the  ancient 
Semitic  area,  and  we  may  probably  assume  that  the  Hebrew  con- 
ception was  the  universal  one. 

80.  In  Egypt,  India,  China,  Persia,  Greece,  Rome,  however,  and 
among  the  Jews  in  the  Greek  period,2  higher  ethical  conceptions 
were  carried  over  to  the  Underworld  ;  judgment,  it  was  held,  was 
pronounced  on  the  dead,  and  rewards  and  punishments  dealt  out 
to  them  according  to  their  moral  character.  The  Jews  and  the 
Persians  went  a  step  further,  and  conceived  of  a  final  general 
judgment,  a  final  winding-up  of  human  history,  and  a  permanent 
reconstruction  of  the  world  on  a  basis  largely  moral,  though  tinged 
with  local  religious  elements — a  grandiose  idea  that  has  maintained 
itself  up  to  the  present  time,  embodying  the  conviction  that  the 
outcome  of  life  depends  on  character,  and  that  ethical  retribution 
is  the  essence  of  the  world. 

1  Sepulchral  inscriptions  of  Tabnit  and  Eshmunazar,  and  the  inscriptions  of 
Antipatros  {Corpus  liiscriptionum  Semitkarum,  vol.  i,  part  i,  p.  9  ff . ;  Lidzbarski, 
Handbuch  der  nordsemitischen  Epigraphik,  part  ii,  pi.  iv,  1,  2;  part  i,  p.  117: 
Ravvlinson,  Phoenicia,  p.  394  f.). 

2  Breasted,  Egypt,  p.  173  ff. ;  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  p.  252  ;  Hopkins, 
Religions  of  India,  pp.  336,  380,  443  :  Texts  of  Taoism,  ed.  J.  Legge,  ii,  6  f.  (in  Sacred 
Books  of  the  East,  vol.  40)  ;  Legge,  Religions  of  China,  p.  82  ;  De  Groot,  Religion  of 
the  Chinese,  pp.  6,  25,  54,  70  ff.,  117  :  Spiegel,  Eranische  Alterthumskunde,  ii,  158  ff. ; 
Plato,  Republic,  614  (story  of  Er);  Book  of  Enoch  passim. 


38       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

81.  This  ethical  constitution  of  the  life  hereafter  led  to  the  local 
separation  of  the  good  from  the  bad.  Such  a  separation  was  imagined 
by  comparatively  undeveloped  peoples  whose  ethical  principle  was 
chiefly  ritualistic,  as,  for  example,  the  Fijians,  the  American  Indians, 
and  by  civilized  peoples  in  their  early  stages,  the  Vedic  Hindus  * 
(  Yama's  abode  in  the  sky,  and  a  pit)  and  the  Greeks  (the  Homeric 
Elysian  Fields,  and  Tartarus).2 

82.  In  fact,  a  recognition  of  a  place  of  happiness  and  a  place  of 
.punishment  in  the  other  life  accompanies  sooner  or  later  a  certain 

stage  of  ethical  culture  in  all  communities.  In  India  it  appears  in 
the  late  Vedic  and  post-Vedic  periods,  together  with  the  ethical 
doctrine  of  metempsychosis,  and  though,  as  is  natural  in  such  a 
stage  of  development,  various  ideas  are  held  respecting  the  destinies 
of  the  good  and  the  bad,  the  ethical  distinction  between  these  classes 
of  persons,  with  a  systematic  awarding  of  rewards  and  punishments, 
becomes  firmly  established  :  Yama  becomes  an  ethical  judge.  In  the 
Brahmanas,  Manu,  and  the  Mahabharata,  we  find  a  sort  of  heaven 
for  the  virtuous  and  a  hell  for  the  vicious.  While  the  academic 
thought  of  Brahmanism  and  the  altruistic  systems  of  Jainism  and 
Buddhism  looked  to  the  absorption  of  the  departed  into  the  All, 
the  popular  Hindu  faith  held  fast  to  the  scheme  of  happiness  and 
wretchedness  in  the  future.3  As  in  Dante's  Divina  Commedia,  the 
heaven  was  somewhat  colorless,  the  hell  more  distinct  and  pictur- 
esque ;  pain  is  acute  and  varied,  happiness  is  calm  and  uniform. 

83 .  The  later  Egyptian  eschatological  development  was  not  unlike 
the  later  Hindu.  The  good  were  rewarded  with  delightful  habitations 
in  the  West  or  with  the  Sun ;  the  bad  were  tortured  in  a  gloomy  place.4 

1  W.  Ellis,  Polynesian  Researches,  chap.xv;  Will  and  Spinden,  The  Mandans, 
p.  !33  ;  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  261  ;  Rig-Veda,  i,  356  ;  vii,  104.  Cf.  article 
"  Blest,  abode  of  the"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  Tartarus  is  as  far  below  Hades  as  the  earth  is  below  the  sky  {Iliad,  viii,  16). 

3  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  379  ff. 

•*  Wiedemann,  Egyptian  Doctrine  of  Immortality,  p.  50  f. :  Maspero,  Dawn  of 
Civilization,  p.  183  ff.;  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  pp.  64,  173  ff.  Different  con- 
ceptions, however,  appear  in  different  stages  of  eschatological  thought.  Probably 
the  older  view  was  that  all  the  dead  descended  to  the  Underworld.  According  to 
another  view,  the  good  ascended  to  heaven  and  accompanied  the  sun  on  his  daily 
voyage  over  the  heavenly  ocean. 


THE  SOUL  39 

84.  As  regards  the  early  Greek  eschatological  scheme,  it  is 
suggested  by  S.  Reinach1  that  the  descriptions  of  punishments  in 
Tartarus  (as  in  the  cases  of  Tantalus  and  others)  arose  from  mis- 
understood representations  of  the  condition  of  the  dead  in  the  other 
world,  they  being  represented  either  as  engaged  in  the  occupations 
of  this  life,  or  as  they  were  at  the  moment  of  death.  The  great 
punishments,  in  fact,  are  assigned  only  to  heroic  mythical  offenders, 
but  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why  the  idea  of  retribution  should 
not  be  supposed  to  enter  into  such  descriptions.  Separation  of  the 
good  from  the  bad  on  ethical  grounds  appears  in  Greece  in  the 
time  of  Plato.  In  various  passages  he  describes  the  savage  places 
(Tartarus  and  others)  to  which  criminals  go  after  death,  and  the 
happy  abodes  of  the  virtuous.2  These  abodes  were  not  with  the 
gods ;  the  occasional  translations  to  heaven  (Heracles,  Ganymede) 
are  exceptional  honors  paid  to  heroes  and  favorites. 

85.  The  Jewish  conception  of  a  punitive  future  belongs  to  the 
Greek  period  of  Jewish  history,  and  was  probably  developed  on 
Hebrew  lines  under  Greek  and  Egyptian  influence.  A  combination 
of  the  Old  Testament  view  of  future  retribution  on  earth  with  the 
conception  of  torture  in  the  other  world  is  given  in  Enoch.3  In 
some  circles  Sheol  was  placed  in  the  West  and  divided  into  two 
regions,  one  of  happiness,  the  other  of  punishment,4  or  the  good 
dwell  with  the  angels  in  heaven,  the  bad  in  hell.5  By  others  the 
abodes  of  the  dead  were  placed  in  the  heavenly  regions :  of  the 
seven  heavens,  the  second  was  assigned  to  the  bad  and  the  third 
to  the  good.0  With  all  the  variation  of  locality,  the  separation  of  the 
bad  from  the  good  is  made  permanent,  and  this  distinction  is  main- 
tained in  the  New  Testament,  which  throughout  assigns  the  wicked 
to  hell  (Gehenna  or  Tartarus),  while  the  righteous  dwell  some- 
times on  the  renovated  earth,  sometimes  in  the  heavenly  regions.7 

1  Revue  archeologiquc,  1903,  and  Reinach,  Orpheus  (Eng.  tr.),  p.  SS  f. 

2  Gorgias,  523-526;  Republic,  x,  614  :  Laws,  x,  904  f ;  Phcedo,  113  f. 

3  Isa.  lxv,  17-21 ;  lxvi,  24  ;  Enoch,  x,  12-22.  4  Hnoch,  xxii. 

5  Enoch,  civ,  6  ;  xcix,  1 1. 

6  Secrets  of  Enoch,  chaps,  vii-x.  For  the  third  heaven  cf.  2  Cor.  xii,  2-4.  Varro 
also  (quoted  in  Augustine,  De  Civ.  Dei,  vii,  6)  assigned  the  souls  of  the  dead  to  a 
celestial  space  beneath  the  abode  of  the  gods. 

"  Matt.xxv,46;  1  Thess.  \\',iy,  2  Pet.  ii,  4  ;  iii,  13;  Rev.xx,  15  ;  xxi,  1 ;  2  Cor.  xii,  2-4. 


40       1XTR0DUCTI0X  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

86.  The  Jewish  and  Christian  books  mentioned  above  content 
themselves  with  the  general  statement  that  the  punishment  of  the 
wicked  will  be  torture  by  fire  and  cold.  Succeeding  Christian  books 
elaborated  the  picture  of  torture  with  great  ingenuity ;  the  Apoca- 
lypse of  Peter,  following  and  expanding  the  description  of  Plato 
and  Enoch,  has  an  elaborate  barbarous  apparatus  of  punishment, 
and  this  scheme,  continued  through  a  series  of  works,1  has  its 
culmination  in  Dante's  Inferno,  where,  however,  the  ethical  ele- 
nient  is  pronounced,  though  colored  by  the  poet's  likes  and  dislikes. 

87.  Purgatory.  The  wicked  dead  were  not  always  left  hopeless 
in  their  place  of  punishment.  Kindly  human  feeling  (shown  in 
early  stages  by  pious  care  for  the  well-being  of  the  dead)  and  the 
analogy  of  earthly  procedures,  civil  and  religious,  led  to  the  view 
that,  after  the  expiation  of  faults  by  suffering,  the  evildoer  might 
be  freed  from  his  prison  and  gain  a  place  of  happiness.  Pardon 
and  purification  were  effected  on  earth  by  punishments  (scourging, 
imprisonment,  etc.)  or  by  ritual  processes  (ablution,  fastings,  etc.) 
—  why  not  in  the  other  life  ?  In  some  systems  of  transmigration 
the  man,  forced  after  death  to  assume  a  lower  form,  may  rise  by 
good  conduct  to  a  higher  form.  In  Plato's  imaginative  construction 
of  the  Underworld2  those  who  have  lived  neither  well  nor  ill  are 
purified  in  the  Acherusian  lake  and  then  receive  rewards  according 
to  their  deserts ;  and  those  who  have  committed  great  but  not 
unpardonable  crimes  may  come  to  the  lake  (after  having  suffered 
the  pains  of  Tartarus)  and  be  freed  from  trouble  if  they  obtain 
pardon  from  those  they  have  wronged.  But  as  here,  so  hereafter, 
certain  offenses  were  regarded  as  unpardonable.  The  purgatorial 
conception  passed  into  patristic  and  Roman  and  Eastern  Chris- 
tianity and  Talmudic  and  Medieval  Judaism.3 

88.  Resurrection.  The  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
which  has  been  fully  developed  only  by  the  Persians  and  the  Jews 
(and  from  them  taken  by  Christianity  and  Islam),  appears  to  have 

1  See,  for  example,  the  Revelation  of  the  Monk  of  Evesham,  Eng.  tr.  by  V.  Paget 
(New  York,  1909).  2  Republic,  x,  614. 

?>  Herzog-Hauck,  Rcal-Encyklopddie,  Index,  s.v.  Fcgfeuei-;  lavish  Encyclopedia, 
article  "  Purgatory." 


THE  SOUL  41 

grown  from  simple  beginnings.  It  is  the  expression  of  the  con- 
viction that  the  perfect  man  is  made  up  of  soul  and  body,  and  its 
full  form  is  found  only  in  periods  of  high  ethical  culture.  But  in 
very  early  times  the  belief  in  the  intimate  connection  between  body 
and  soul  appears  in  the  care  taken  among  certain  peoples  to  pre- 
serve the  bones  or  the  whole  body  of  the  deceased  as  a  possible 
future  abode  for  the  soul ; x  and,  on  the  other  hand,  as  the  soul,  it 
was  held,  might  return  to  the  body  and  be  dangerous  to  the  living, 
means  were  sometimes  employed  to  frighten  it  off.  It  seems  to 
have  been  believed  in  some  cases  that  the  destruction  of  the  body 
involved  the  destruction  of  the  soul  (New  Zealand).  An  actual 
entrance  of  a  departed  soul  into  a  human  body  is  involved  in  some 
early  forms  of  the  doctrine  of  reincarnation,2  but  this  is  not  the 
restoration  of  the  dead  man's  own  body.  It  was  held  in  Egypt 
(and  not  improbably  elsewhere)  that  the  soul  after  death  might 
desire  to  take  possession  of  its  own  body,  and  provision  was  made 
for  such  an  emergency  ;  but  this  belief  seems  not  to  have  had 
serious  results  for  religious  life.  A  temporary  reunion  of  soul  and 
body  appears  in  the  figure  of  the  vampire,  which,  however,  is  a 
part  of  a  popular  belief  and  religiously  not  important.  But  these 
passing  beliefs  indicate  a  general  tendency,  and  may  have  paved 
the  way  for  the  more  definite  conception  of  bodily  restoration. 

89.  The  more  developed  Hindu  doctrine  (Brahmanic,  Jainistic, 
Buddhistic)  recognized  a  great  variety  of  possible  forms  of  rein- 
carnation (human  and  nonhuman),  and  made  a  step  forward  by 
including  the  continuity  or  reestablishment  of  moral  life  and  re- 
sponsibility (the  doctrine  of  karma).3  It,  however,  never  reached 
the  form  of  a  universal  or  partial  resurrection. 

1  American  Indians  (H.  C.  Yarrow,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Mortuary  Customs 
among  the  North  American  Indians,  p.  5  ff.)  ;  Egypt  (Wilkinson,  The  Ancient  Egyp- 
tians, chap,  x)  ;  see  article  "  Funerailles  "  in  La  Grande  Encyclopedic  Grant  Allen, 
in  77/.?  Evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God,  chap,  iii,  connects  the  idea  of  bodily  resurrection 
with  the  custom  of  inhumation  and  the  idea  of  immortality  with  cremation,  but  this 
view  is  not  borne  out  by  known  facts. 

2  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  i,  262,  2 78. 

3  The  doctrine  of  reincarnation  in  India  followed  on  that  of  Hades,  and  stood  in 
a  certain  opposition  to  it.  Cf.  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  pp.  204  ff.,  530  n.  3  ;  Bloom- 
field,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  pp.  211,  252  ff. 


42       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

90.  The  birthplace  of  this  latter  doctrine  appears  to  have  been 
the  region  in  which  Mazdaism  arose,  the  country  south  of  the 
Caspian  Sea.  Windischmann  infers  from  Herodotus,  iii,  62,  that  it 
appears  as  a  Mazdean  belief  as  early  as  the  sixth  century  B.C.1  This 
is  doubtful,  but  it  is  reported  as  a  current  belief  by  Theopompus.2 
Its  starting-point  was  doubtless  the  theory  of  reincarnation,  which, 
we  may  suppose,  the  Iranian  Aryans  shared  with  their  Indian 
brethren.  Precisely  what  determined  the  Iranian  movement  toward 
.this  specific  form  of  reincarnation  we  have  no  means  of  knowing. 
It  may  be  due  to  the  same  genius  for  simple  organization  that  led 
the  Zoroastrians  to  discard  the  mass  of  the  old  gods  and  elevate 
Ahura  Mazda  to  the  chief  place  in  the  pantheon  ;  their  genius  for 
practical  social  religious  organization  may  have  induced  them  to 
select  human  reincarnation  as  the  most  natural  and  the  most 
effective  morally,  and  to  discard  other  forms  as  unworthy.3  The 
dead  man's  own  body  would  then  be  the  natural  dwelling  place  of 
his  soul ;  but  a  refined  body  (as  in  1  Cor.  xv)  might  be  regarded 
as  better  suited  to  the  finer  life  of  the  future.  Whatever  the 
cause,  they  adopted  this  conception,  and  probably  through  their  in- 
fluence it  passed  to,  or  was  formulated  by,  the  Jews,  among  whom 
it  appears  in  the  second  century  B.C.  (in  the  Book  of  Daniel).4  In 
Daniel  and  2  Maccabees  resurrection  is  confined  to  the  Jews ;  in 
Enoch  it  is  sometimes  similarly  confined,  sometimes  apparently 
universal.5  In  the  New  Testament  also  the  same  diversity  of  state- 
ment appears ;  resurrection  seems  to  be  confined  to  believers  in  some 

1  Zoroastrian  Studies,  p.  236.  Prexaspes  says  that  "  if  the  dead  rise  again  "  Smerdis 
may  be  the  son  of  Cyrus.  He  may  mean  that  this  is  not  probable.  Smerdis,  he  would 
in  that  case  say,  is  certainly  dead,  and  this  pretender  can  be  the  son  of  Cyrus  only  in 
case  the  dead  come  to  life. 

2  Diogenes  Laertius  in  Midler,  Fragmenta  Historicorum  Grcecontm,  i,  289;  cf. 
Plutarch,  his  and  Osiris,  47,  and  Herodotus,  i,  131-140.  See  Spiegel,  Eranische 
Alterthumskunde,  ii,  1 58  ff. 

3  Occasional  reincarnation  in  human  form  is  found  elsewhere.  The  Mazdeans 
made  it  universal. 

4  There  is  no  certain  or  probable  reference  to  it  in  the  Old  Testament  before  this. 
Ezek.  xxxvii,  1-14,  is  obviously  a  figurative  prediction  of  national  (not  individual)  re- 
suscitation, and  the  obscure  passage  Isa.  xxvi,  19  seems  to  refer  to  the  reestablishment 
of  the  nation,  arid  in  any  case  is  not  earlier  than  the  fourth  century  B.C.  and  may 
be  later.  5  Dan.  xii  ;  2  Mace,  vii,  14  ;  Enoch,  xci,  10:  xxii. 


THE  SOUL  43 

passages1  and  to  be  universal  in  others.2  In  the  former  case  it  is 
regarded  as  a  reward  of  piety  and  as  a  consequence  of  the  intimate 
relation  between  the  man  and  God  or  Christ ;  unbelievers  then  re- 
main in  hades,  where  they  are  punished.  But  universal  resurrection 
was  probably  thought  of  as  involved  in  the  grandiose  conceptions 
of  a  final  judgment  and  a  final  moral  restoration.3 

5.  Powers  of  the  Soul 

91.  Savage  lore  takes  account  of  the  powers  of  the  separated 
soul  only ;  the  qualities  and  functions  of  the  earthly  incorporate 
soul  .are  accepted  as  a  part  of  the  existing  familiar  order,  and  are 
not  analyzed  or  discussed.  It  was  different  with  the  departed  soul, 
which,  because  of  its  strangeness  and  mystery,  was  credited  with 
extraordinary  powers,  and  this  part  of  savage  science  was  gradually 
developed,  through  observation  and  inference,  into  an  important 
system.  In  the  search  for  causes,  the  Shade,  its  independent  exist- 
ence once  established,  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  agent  in  many 
procedures  of  which  no  probable  account  could  otherwise  be  given. 

92.  The  greatest  activity  of  the  departed  soul  is  found  in  the 
earliest  known  period  of  culture,  when  it  was  not  yet  relegated  to 
hades  or  to  the  sky,  but  dwelt  on  earth,  either  near  its  former  habi- 
tation or  in  a  distant  region  from  which  it  might  return.  Its  powers 
of  movement  and  action  are  then  held  to  be  all  that  imagination 
can  suggest.  Such  souls  move  through  the  air  or  under  the  ground, 
enter  houses  through  obstacles  impenetrable  to  the  earthly  man, 
pass  into  the  human  body,  assume  such  shapes  as  pleases  them. 
Divested  of  gross  earthly  bodies,  they  are  regarded  as  raised  above 
all  ordinary  limitations  of  humanity.  Of  these  conceptions,  that  of 
the  ghost's  superhuman  power  of  movement  remains  in  the  popu- 
lar faith  to  the  present  day. 

93.  The  practical  question  for  the  early  man  is  the  determination 
of  the  relation  of  departed  souls  to  earthly  life.  Among  savage 
tribes  their  attitude  is  sometimes  friendly,  sometimes  unfriendly, 

1  i  Cor.  xv,  23 ;  Rom.  vi,  4  ;  viii,  11  ;  John  vi,  54. 

2  Acts  xxiv,  15  ;  John  v,  28  f.         3  Apokatastasis  (Col.  i,  20  ;  cf.  Rom.  xi,  32). 


44       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

more  often  the  latter.1  To  fear  the  unknown  is  a  human  instinct. 
Shades  are  looked  on  as  aliens,  and  aliens  are  generally  enemies. 
In  particular,  ghosts  are  conceived  of  as  sometimes  wandering 
about  in  search  of  food  or  warmth,  or  as  cherishing  enmity  toward 
persons  who  had  wronged  them  in  their  earthly  life.  They  are 
supposed  to  be  capable  of  inflicting  disease  or  pain,  and  precau- 
tions are  taken  against  them.  Cases  are  reported  of  persons  who 
killed  themselves  in  order  that,  as  ghosts,  they  might  wreak  ven- 
geance on  enemies.2  On  the  other  hand,  to  the  members  of  its  own 
family  the  departed  soul  is  sometimes  held  to  be  friendly,  or  not 
unfriendly,  but  among  savages  it  is  not  thought  of  as  a  potent  and 
valuable  friend. 

94.  In  the  more  advanced  cults  the  functions  of  the  departed 
souls  become  larger  and  more  important.  They  are  regarded  as 
having  the  power  of  foretelling  the  future,  and  are  consulted.3  They 
become' guardian  spirits,  and  a  cult  of  souls  arises.4  In  some  higher 
forms  of  religion  (Judaism,  Christianity,  Islam)  they  are  regarded 
as  mediators  between  man  and  the  deity,  or  as  advocates  for  man 
in  the  heavenly  court. 

95.  Prayer  for  the  dead.  Before  the  ethical  stage  of  religion  the 
moral  condition  and  needs  of  the  dead  did  not  come  into  considera- 
tion ;  their  physical  wants  were  met  by  performance  of  funeral 
rites  and  by  supplying  them  with  food  and  other  necessities  of  life,5 
and  they  later  came  to  be  looked  on  as  helpers  rather  than  as  need- 
ing help  ;  but  when  this  old  view  passed  away,  and  the  conceptions 
of  judgment  and  ethical  retribution  after  death  were  reached,  the 
moral  status  of  the  dead  became  a  source  of  anxiety  to  the  living. 
It  was  held  that  the  divine  judge  might  be  reached  —  by  interces- 
sion or  by  petitions,  or  by  the  performance  of  certain  ceremonies 
—  and  his  attitude  toward  the  dead  modified. 


1  Cf.  Steinmetz,  Ethnologische  Studien  zur  ersten  Entwicklung  der  Strafe. 

-  Wcstermarck,  Moral  Ideas,  ii,  234,  245  f.       3  See  below,  on  necromancy,  §  92;. 

4  See  §  360  ff.  (ancestor-worship)  and  §  350  ff.  (divinization  of  deceased  persons). 

5  In  Egypt  there  grew  up  also  an  elaborate  system  of  charms  for  the  protection 
of  the  dead  against  hostile  animals,  especially  serpents,  —  a  body  of  magical  texts 
that  finally  took  the  form  of  the  "  Book  of  the  Dead  "  (Breasted,  History  of  Egypt, 
pp.  69,  175  ;  Steindorff,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  153  ff.). 


THE  SOUL  45 

96.  A  trace  of  such  care  for  the  deceased  may  be  found  in  the 
Brahmanic  ceremonies  intended  to  secure  complete  immortality  to 
fathers.1  In  Egypt,  in  the  later  times,  there  was  an  arrangement 
for  securing  for  the  deceased  immunity  from  punishment  for  moral 
offenses  :  a  sacred  beetle  of  stone,  inscribed  with  a  charm  beginning 
"  O  my  heart,  rise  not  up  against  me  as  a  witness,"  laid  on  the 
breast  of  the  mummy,  silences  the  heart  in  the  presence  of  Osiris, 
and  the  man,  even  though  guilty,  goes  free.  Forms  of  charms  were 
prepared  by  the  priests,  and  the  name  of  any  one  who  could  pay 
was  inserted  in  blanks  left  for  this  purpose.2  This  sort  of  corrupt- 
ing procedure  was  reproduced  in  some  periods  of  Christianity.  In 
the  early  Church  a  custom  existed  of  receiving  baptism  on  behalf 
of  such  as  died  unbaptized;3  here,  apparently,  a  magical  efficacy 
was  ascribed  to  the  act.  The  first  mention  of  prayer  for  the  dead 
occurs  in  a  history  of  the  Maccabean  wars,  where  a  sin-offering, 
accompanied  by  prayer,  effects  reconciliation  for  certain  soldiers 
who  died  in  a  state  of  sin  (idol  symbols  were  found  on  their  per- 
sons).4 Prayer  for  the  dead  has  been  largely  developed  in  Chris- 
tianity and  Islam.5 

6.  Genesis  of  Spirits 

97.  As  early  science  identified  life  with  the  soul,  it  logically  attrib- 
uted a  soul  to  everything  that  was  regarded  as  living.  This  category 
seems  to  have  embraced  all  the  objects  of  the  world  —  human  be- 
ings, beasts,  plants,  weapons,  rocks,  waters,  heavenly  bodies.  Sav- 
ages rarely  formulate  their  ideas  on  such  a  subject,  but  the  belief  in 
the  future  existence  of  nonhuman  as  well  as  human  things  is  fairly 
established  by  the  widespread  practice  of  slaying  animals  at  the 
tomb  and  burying  with  the  dead  the  objects  they  are  supposed  to 
need  in  the  other  world.    This  custom  exists  among  many  tribes  at 

1  Qatapatha  Brahmana,  xii,  9,  3,  12.    Cf.  W.  Ellis,  Polynesian  Researches,  i,  193  f. 

2  Breasted,  op.  cit.,  p.  249.  3  I  Cor.  xv,  29. 

4  2  Mace,  xii,  40  ff.  Possibly  the  custom  came  to  the  Jews  from  Egypt.  Eor  later 
Jewish  ideas  on  this  point  see  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  article  "  Kaddish." 

5  Smith  and  Cheetham,  Dictionary  of  Christian  Antiquities,  article  "  Canon  of  the 
Liturgy  "  ;  Hughes,  Dictionary  of  Islam,  article  «  Prayers  for  the  Dead." 


46       IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  present  day,  and  the  contents  of  ancient  tombs  prove  its  exist- 
ence in  former  times.  The  dead  are  provided  with  clothing,  imple- 
ments of  labor,  weapons,  ornaments,  food,  and  as  these  objects 
remain  in  their  mundane  form  by  or  in  the  grave,  it  is  held  that 
their  souls  pass  with  the  souls  of  their  possessors  into  the  world 
beyond.  Further,  the  belief  in  transformation  from  human  to  non- 
human  forms  and  vice  versa  involves  the  supposition  of  life  in  all 
such  things.  That  the  heavenly  bodies,  similarly,  are  supposed  to 
be  animated  by  souls  appears  from  the  fact  that  they  are  regarded 
as  manlike  in  form,  thought,  and  manner  of  life :  the  sun  is  frequently 
represented  as  a  venerable  man  who  traverses  the  sky  —  the  moon 
being  his  wife,  and  the  stars  their  children ;  and  sun  and  moon 
sometimes  figure  as  totems.  This  general  conception  has  been  ex- 
panded and  modified  in  a  great  variety  of  ways  among  different 
peoples,  but  the  belief  in  the  anthropomorphic  nature  of  the  astral 
bodies  has  been  an  element  of  all  religions  except  the  highest. 

98.  The  apparent  incongruities  in  the  savage  theory  —  that  all 
things  are  endowed  with  life  —  need  occasion  us  no  difficulty.  Com- 
plete consistency  and  tenability  in  such  theories  is  not  to  be  expected. 
Early  men,  like  the  lower  animals,  were  doubtless  capable  of  dis- 
tinguishing between  things  living  and  things  dead :  a  dog  quickly 
discovers  whether  a  moving  object  is  alive.  Man  and  beasts  have 
in  such  questions  canons  of  criticism  derived  from  long  experience.1 

99.  But  man  differs  from  the  beast  in  that  he  feels  the  necessity 
of  accounting  for  life  by  the  hypothesis  of  a  soul,  and  as  he  seems 
to  himself  to  find  evidence  of  life  in  plants  and  minerals  (movement, 
growth,  decay),  he  is  justified  in  attributing  souls  to  all  things.  He 
is  interested,  however,  only  in  movements  that  affect  his  welfare. 
Whatever  his  general  theory  about  rocks,  a  particular  rock,  as  long 
as  it  does  not  affect  his  life,  is  for  him  an  inert  and  worthless  mass, 
practically  dead  ;  but  if  he  discovers  that  it  has  power  to  harm  him, 
it  becomes  instinct  with  life,  and  is  treated  as  a  rational  being.  Man 
has  shown  himself  practical  in  all  stages  of  religion ;  he  is  always  the 
center  of  his  world,  and  treats  objects  and  theories  with  sole  regard 
to  his  own  well-being. 

1  On  savage  logic  cf.  Jevons,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion,  chap.  iv. 


THE  SOUL  47 

100.  The  world  of  the  savage  was  thus  peopled  with  souls,  and 
these  came  to  have  an  independent  existence.  That  this  was  the 
case  with  human  souls  is  pointed  out  above,1  and  by  analogy  the 
separateness  was  extended  to  all  souls.  Thus  there  arose  tree- 
spirits,  river-spirits,  and  other  similar  extrahuman  beings.  It  is  con- 
venient to  employ  the  term  '  spirit '  as  the  designation  of  the  soul 
in  a  nonhuman  object,  isolated  and  independent,  and  regarded  as 
a  Power  to  be  treated  with  respect.  The  term  is  sometimes  used 
of  a  disembodied  human  soul,  and  sometimes  of  a  deity  resident  in 
an  object  of  nature.  It  is  better  to  distinguish,  as  far  as  possible, 
between  these  different  senses  of  the  word.  The  functions  of  a 
spirit  are  sometimes  practically  identical  with  those  of  a  god.  The 
difference  between  these  two  classes  of  extrahuman  agents  is  one  of 
general  culture ;  it  is  especially  determined  in  any  community  by 
the  extent  of  the  organization  of  such  agents  that  has  been  effected 
by  the  community.  The  cult  of  spirits  is  considered  below  in  con- 
nection with  the  description  of  divine  beings.2 

1  See  §  iS  ff. 


CHAPTER  III 
EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES 

101.  The  earliest  known  forms  of  social  life  are  characterized 
«by  the  performance  of  public  ceremonies,  which  are  almost  always 

religious.  Religion  in  some  form  enters  into  all  the  details  of  early 
life  —  there  is  no  event  that  is  not  supposed  to  be  caused  or  affected 
by  a  supernatural  Power  or  influence.  A  vaguely  conceived  force 
(mana),  an  attribute  of  life,  is  believed  to  reside  in  all  things,  and 
under  certain  circumstances  has  to  be  reckoned  with.  Mysterious 
potencies  in  the  shape  of  souls,  spirits,  gods,  or  mana  are  held 
to  preside  over  and  control  all  affairs  —  birth,  sickness,  death,  hate 
and  love,  hunting  and  war,  sowing  and  reaping.  There  is  no  dogma 
except  belief  in  this  extrahuman  influence  —  no  conception  of  moral 
effort  as  based  on  and  sanctioned  by  a  definite  moral  ideal,  no 
struggle  of  the  sort  that  we  call  spiritual.  Religion  consists  of  a 
body  of  practices  whose  authority  rests  on  precedent ;  as  it  is  sup- 
posed they  have  existed  from  time  immemorial,  they  are  held  to  be 
necessary  to  secure  the  well-being  of  the  tribe  (a  sufficient  supply 
of  food,  or  victory  over  enemies)  ;  to  "the  question  why  such  and  such 
things  are  done,  the  common  reply  of  the  savage  is  that  without 
them  the  thing  desired  could  not  be  got. 

102.  In  the  earliest  stages  known  to  us  these  procedures  are 
already  elaborate  and  distinct ;  they  are  generally  conducted  by  the 
tribal  leaders  (old  men,  chiefs,  magicians),  by  whom  they  are  handed 
down  from  generation  to  generation.1  Their  precise  origin  is  lost 
in  the  depths  of  antiquity.  Doubtless  they  arose  from  social  needs, 
and  their  precise  forms  were  suggested  by  crude  observation  and 

1  As  to  the  efficiency  of  such  tradition,  compare  the  way  in  which  mechanical 
processes  are  transmitted  by  older  workmen  to  younger,  always  with  the  possibility 
of  gradual  improvement.  In  literary  activity,  also,  tradition  plays  a  great  part ;  a  young 
people  must  serve  an  apprenticeship  before  it  can  produce  works  of  merit. 

48 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  49 

reasoning.  Reflection  on  processes  of  nature,  guided  sometimes  by 
fortunate  or  unfortunate  accidents,  may  have  led  to  the  establish- 
ment of  methods  of  procedure  for  gaining  social  and  individual  ends; 
and,  as  at  this  formative  period  the  whole  life  of  the  community 
was  permeated  by  religious  conceptions,  the  procedures  either 
were  originally  religious  or  speedily  took  on  a  religious  coloring. 

103.  Two  characteristics  belong  to  early  ceremonies:  they  are 
communal,  and  they  are  generally  sacred  mysteries.  Whatever  be 
the  origin  of  the  tribal  and  clan  institutions  of  society,  these  are 
practically  universal  in  the  world  as  it  is  now  known.  Even  in  the 
few  cases  where  men  live  in  the  comparative  isolation  of  individual 
family  groups  (as  the  Eskimo,  Fuegians,  and  others  are  said  to 
do  *),  there  is  a  communal  feeling  that  is  shown  in  the  identity  of 
customs  and  ideas  among  the  isolated  groups.  In  early  man  there 
is  little  individuality  of  thought  or  of  religious  experience,2  and 
there  is  no  observable  difference  between  public  and  private  re- 
ligious worship.  Ceremonies,  like  language,  are  the  product  of 
social  thought,  and  are  themselves  essentially  social.  When  a  man 
performs  an  individual  religious  act  (as  when  he  recognizes  an  omen 
in  an  animal  or  bird,  or  chooses  a  guardian  animal  or  spirit,  or 
wards  off  a  sickness  or  a  noxious  influence),  he  is  aware  that  his 
act  is  in  accordance  with  general  usage,  that  it  has  the  approval  of 
the  community,  and  that  its  potency  rests  on  the  authority  of  the 
community.  It  is  true  that  such  communal  character  belongs,  in 
some  degree,  to  all  religious  life  —  no  person's  religion  is  wholly 
independent  of  the  thought  of  his  community ;  but  in  the  lower 
strata  the  acceptance  of  the  common  customs  is  unreflective  and 
complete.  When  definite  individualism  sets  in,  ceremonies  begin  to 
lose  their  old  significance,  though  they  may  be  retained  as  mere 
forms  or  with  a  new  interpretation. 

1  Spencer,  Principles  of  Sociology,  i,  sec.  35  ;  Westermarck,  Human  Marriage, 
p.  43  ff. ;  Pridham,  Ceylon,  i,  454  (Veddas)  ;  United  States  Exploring  Expedition,  i.  124 
(Fuegians);  Fison  and  Howitt,  Kamilaroi and Kurnai,  p.  278  (Australian  Grounditch); 
Fritsch,  Die  Ebigcborcncn  Siid-Afrikas,  p.  32S  (Bushmen)  ;  Schoolcraft,  Indian 
Tribes  of  the  United  States,  i,  207  (North  American  Snake  tribes)  ;  Rivet,  in  The 
American  Anthropologist,  1909  ("The  Jivaros  of  Ecuador'"). 

2  Cf.  I.  King,  The  Development  of  Religion,  p.  66  ff. 


5<3       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

104.  That  the  ceremonial  observances  are  usually  sacred  is  obvi- 
ous from  all  the  descriptions  we  have  of  them.  Their  power  is 
not  always  attributed  to  the  action  of  external  personal,  supernatural 
agencies  (though  such  agencies  may  have  been  assumed  originally)  ; 
in  many  cases,  it  is  held  to  reside  in  themselves.1  They  are  sacred 
in  the  sense  that  they  are  mysterious,  acting  in  a  way  that  is 
beyond  human  comprehension  and  with  a  power  that  is  beyond 
human  control.2  They  are  efficacious  only  when  performed  by 
persons  designated  or  recognized  by  the  community.  Here  there 
is  undoubtedly  a  dim  sense  of  law  and  unity  in  the  world,  based  on 
an  interpretation  of  experiences.  This  is  a  mode  of  thought  that 
runs  through  the  whole  history  of  religion  —  only,  in  the  earliest 
stages  of  human  life,  it  is  superficial  and  narrow.  The  earlier 
ceremonial  customs  contain  the  germs  and  the  essential  features 
of  the  later  more  refined  procedures. 

105.  Without  attempting  to  give  an  exhaustive  list,  the  principal 
early  ceremonies  may  be  divided  into  classes  as  follows : 

Emotional  and  Dramatic  Ceremonies 

106.  The  dances  that  are  so  common  among  savage  tribes  are  in 
many  instances  now  (and  doubtless  this  has  always  been  the  case) 
simply  the  expression  of  animal  joyousness.3  They  are  like  the 
caperings  of  young  animals  —  only,  the  human  feeling  of  rhythm 
asserts  itself,  the  movements  are  often  measured  and  graceful. 
There  is  naturally  an  accompaniment  of  noise  —  shouting  and 
beating  on  pieces  of  wood,  bone,  or  metal,  with  songs  or  chants, 
the  beginnings  of  vocal  and  instrumental  music. 

Words  and  melodies  are  simple  and  rude ;  they  are  the  pro- 
ductions of  individual  singers,  often,  of  course,  made  from  a  stock 

1  Even  in  higher  forms  of  religion,  as  the  Vedic,  sacrifice  and  other  ceremonies 
are  supposed  to  have  a  magical  power  over  the  gods. 

2  This  is  a  part  of  the  belief  in  the  mysterious  energy  (mana)  potentially  resident 
in  all  things. 

3  See,  for  example,  the  bird  dances  described  by  Haddon  (Head-hunters,  p.  358)  ; 
compare  W.  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  83  al.  Dances  are  now  often  given  for 
the  amusement  of  the  public.  Clowns  often  form  a  feature  of  such  ceremonies  ;  see 
Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  230;  R.  B.  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu  [Bulletin  of 
American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  xvii,  part  iii,  p.  315  ff.). 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  5  1 

of  material  common  to  all  members  of  the  clan  or  the  tribe.  In 
Australia  songs  are  thought  to  be  obtained  by  bards  during  sleep 
from  the  souls  of  the  dead  (sometimes  from  Bunjil),  or  the  bard 
is  possessed  by  the  soul  of  a  beast ;  chants  are  employed  in  magical 
ceremonies,  and  there  are  lullabies  and  other  children's  songs.1  The 
Muscogee  "Song  of  the  Sabbea"  is  very  sacred.2  In  West  Africa 
minstrels  recite  song-stories,  every  story  being  attached  to  an  object 
(bone,  feather,  etc.).3  Songs  are  chanted  at  festivals  in  Guiana  (and 
at  night  men  tell  endless  stories).4 

107.  The  movements  of  the  dance  are  sometimes  in  imitation 
of  those  of  animals,5  sometimes  spontaneous,  and  sometimes  from 
our  point  of  view  indecent.  The  indecency  and  obscenity  originated 
and  has  continued  in  a  period  when  no  moral  element  entered  into 
such  performances  —  they  simply  follow  animal  instincts  and  im- 
pulses, are  controlled  by  them,  and  appear  usually  not  to  affect  the 
customs  relating  to  marriage  and  chastity  (so  in  the  Areoi  festivities 
of  Tahiti,  and  among  the  Central  Australians 6). 

108.  In  accordance  with  the  law  by  which  religion  appropri- 
ates social  customs,  the  dance  is  devoted  to  religious  purposes 
and  acquires  a  sacred  character.7  It  is  a  common  ceremony  as  a 
preparation  for  war:  the  warriors  of  the  tribe  jump  about  with 
violent  gesticulations  and  shouts,  brandishing  weapons  and  mimick- 
ing the  acts  of  attacking  and  slaying  enemies.8  Here,  doubtless,  the 
object  is  partly  to  excite  the  men  to  fury  and  thus  prepare  them 
for  combat,  but  there  is  also  the  conviction  that  the  ceremony  itself 
has  a  sacred  potency.9  A  similar  occult  power  is  attached  to  dancing 

1  Howitt,  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xvi,  327  ff. 

2  Miss  Fletcher,  Indian  Ceremonies,  p.  263  n.  3  Miss  Kingsley,  Studies,  p.  126. 
4  E.  F.  im  Thurn,  Indians  of  Guiana,  vii,  iv,  5.  5  E.  F.  im  Thurn,  op.  cit.,  vi. 
6  Of  the  same  simple  festive  nature  as  dances  are  the  plays  or  sports  that  are  not 

infrequent  among  savages  and  half-civilized  tribes.  In  the  Areoi  dramatic  perform- 
ances priests  are  ridiculed  (W.  Ellis,  Polynesian  Researches,  p.  1S7). 

"  Miss  Fletcher,  "  Emblematic  Use  of  the  Tree  in  the  Dakotan  Group  "  (in  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  1896). 

8  So  among  the  hill  tribes  of  North  Arracan  {Journal  of  the  Anthropological  In- 
stitute, ii,  239)  and  the  North  American  Indians  (Featherman,  Races  of  Mankind, 
division  iii,  part  i,  p.  37  etc.).  Such  dances  are  performed  by  the  Tshi  women  in  the 
absence  of  the  men  (A.  B.  Ellis,  The  Tshi,  p.  226). 

9  See  below,  §  905,  on  imitative  magic. 


5  2       INTRODl  rCTI(  )N  TO  HI  SIX  )R ) '  OF  RELIGIONS 

in  Timorlaut,  where,  when  a  ship  is  at  sea,  the  girls  sing  and  dance 
on  the  beach  daily  to  bring  the  men  back.1  There  are  dances  in 
commemoration  of  the  dead 2  —  apparently  a  combination  of  affec- 
tion and  homage,  with  the  general  purpose  of  conciliating  the  de- 
parted and  procuring  their  aid;  the  belief  being,  apparently,  that 
the  dead  see  these  demonstrations  and  are  pleased  with  them.  A 
Ghost  Dance  formerly  performed  in  California  had  for  its  object 
bringing  back  the  dead.3 

109.  At  a  later  time  such  ceremonies  were  connected  with  the 
\v<  »rship  of  gods  :  sometimes  they  were  of  the  nature  of  offerings  of 
homage  to  the  supernatural  Powers,  as  in  the  Young  Dog  Dance  ; 4 
sometimes  they  took  on  a  symbolic  and  representative  or  dramatic 
character.  Among  the  Redmen  the  dramatic  dances  are  elaborate, 
often  representing  the  histories  of  divine  persons,  these  latter  fre- 
quently appearing  in  the  form  of  animals.5  The  accompanying 
Songs  or  chants  relate  stories  that  are  intended  to  explain,  wholly 
or  in  part,  the  details  of  the  rite.6 

110.  Thus  combined  with  other  ceremonies,  dances  become  im- 
portant means  of  religious  culture.  In  Greece  dances  were  connected 
with  many  cults,  among  others  with,  the  Dionysiac  ceremonies,  out 
of  which  grew  the  Greek  drama.  Among  the  Hebrews  the  ancient 
ceremonial  dance  appears  as  late  as  the  time  of  David,7  though  it 
was  then,  perhaps,  falling  into  desuetude,  since  his  wife,  Michal,  is 
disgusted  at  his  procedures.  The  violent  movement  of  the  dance 
excites  not  only  warlike  rage  but  also  religious  ecstasy,  and  has 
been  used  abundantly  for  this  purpose  by  magicians,  prophets,  and 

1  Riedel,  in  Zeitschrift  fur  Ethnologic,  xvii.  2  Haddon,  Head-hunters,  p.  139. 

3  Journal  of  American  Folklore,  xvii,  32.  Cf.  the  dance  for  the  benefit  of  a  sick 
man  (R.  B.  Dixon,  w  Some  Shamans  of  Northern  California,"  op.  cit.,  xvii,  23  ff.). 

4  Journal  of  American  Folklore,  iv,  307.  Cf.  Will  and  Spinden,  The  Mandans, 
pp.  129  ff.,  143  ff.  The  gods  themselves,  also,  have  their  festive  dances  (W.  Matthews, 
Navaho  Legends,  p.  S3),  and  are  sometimes  represented  as  the  authors  of  the  sacred 
chants  (ibid.  p.  225).  5  See  W.  Matthews,  loc.  cit. 

6  See,  further,  Journal  of American  Folklore,  iii,  257  ;  iv,  129  ;  xii,  Si  (basket  dances) ; 
R.  B.  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  1S3  ff.  (numerous  and  elaborate,  and  sometimes 
economic);  Robertson,  Kafirs  of  the  Hindu-Kush,  chap.  33  ;  N.  W.  Thomas,  Australia, 
chap.  7.  Thomas  describes  many  Australian  games,  and  Dixon  ( The  Shasta,  p.  44 1  ff.) 
Califomian  games.    For  stories  told  by  the  natives  of  Guiana  see  above,  §  106. 

7  2  Sam.  vi,  5. 


EARL Y  RELIGIO US  CEREMi  1NIES  5  3 

mystics  ;  the  performer  is  regarded  as  a  vehicle  of  divine  revelation, 
all  abnormal  excitement  being  ascribed  to  possession  by  a  spirit.1 

111.  With  dances  may  be  classed  processions,  in  which  usually  a 
god  is  invoked  or  praised.  In  Ashanti-land,  in  time  of  war,  when 
the  men  are  with  the  army,  processions  of  women,  wives  of  the 
warriors,  march  through  the  streets,  invoking  the  gods  on  behalf 
of  the  absent  men.2  Often  the  performers  bear  a  sacred  object, 
as  a  stone  (sometimes  inclosed  in  a  box 3),  a  boat,  or  an  image ;  in 
early  times  such  objects  not  only  represent  the  gods  but  actually 
embody  them,  or  are  themselves  superhuman  Powers. 

112.  A  peculiar  form  of  procession  is  that  in  which  the  wor- 
shipers move  round  a  sacred  object,  perhaps  the  adoption  of  a 
natural  form  of  play.  The  original  design  in  such  movements  may 
have  been  simply  to  show  respect  to  the  object  in  question  and 
secure  its  favor,  the  circular  movement  being  a  natural  way  of 
keeping  in  touch  with  it.  In  certain  cases  the  circumambulation  is 
connected  with  the  movement  of  the  sun  in  the  sky  —  probably  a 
later  interpretation  of  the  ceremony.  Examples  are  found  in  Hindu, 
Greek,  and  Roman  practices,  and  in  some  modern  Christian  usages 
(in  the  Greek  and  Roman  churches).  As  a  magical  efficiency  was  held 
to  attach  to  the  ceremony,  its  effect  was  sometimes  held  to  depend 
on  the  direction  of  the  movement :  if  it  was  to  the  right  —  passing 
from  east  through  south  to  west  (the  worshiper  facing  the  east)  — 
it  was  good,  but  bad  if  in  the  opposite  direction.  Though  traces  of 
solemn  circumambulation  are  found  in  some  lower  tribes,  it  has 
been,  and  is,  practiced  chiefly  in  the  higher  cults.4 

113.  Sacred  dances  and  processions  are  natural  human  expres- 
sions of  emotions  that  have  been  adopted  by  religious  sentiment, 
and  are  often  supposed  to  have  potency  in  themselves.  They  tend 
to  disappear  with  the  progress  of  general  refinement  and  of  ethical 
conceptions  of  life  and  of  deity.  They  continue,  however,  far  into 
the  civilized  period,  in  which  we  find  dramatic  representations  (as 

1  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  133  f.,  409  f.         2  A.  B.  Ellis,  The  Ts/ii,  p.  226. 

3  So,  probably,  the  Old- Hebrew  ark. 

4  See  the  references  in  article  "  Circumambulation  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of 
Religion  and  Ethics. 


54       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  Eleusinian  rites  and  the  medieval  Mystery  Plays),  processions 
of  priests  bearing  or  conducting  sacred  objects,  processions  of 
devotees  with  music,  and  pilgrimages  to  shrines.  Such  ceremonies, 
while  they  are  regarded  by  educated  persons  simply  as  expressions 
of  reverence  and  accompaniments  of  prayer,  are  still  believed  by 
many  to  have  an  innate  or  magic  potency,  insuring  prosperity 
to  the  participants. 

Decorative  and  Curative  Ceremonies 

114.  Love  of  ornament  is  found  among  all  savage  peoples  ;  the 
value  they  attach  to  beads  and  all  colored  things  is  well  known  to 
travelers  and  traders.  It  has  been  plausibly  argued  that  the  origin 
of  clothing  is  to  be  found  in  the  desire  of  each  sex  to  make  itself 
beautiful  in  the  eyes  of  the  other.1  However  that  may  be,  the 
employment  of  leaves  for  headdresses  and  waistbands  is  general 
among  lower  tribes.2 

115.  Equally  popular  is  the  adornment  of  the  body  by  colored 
marks  made  with  red  ocher,  pipe-clay,  turmeric,  charcoal,  and  such 
like  things  as  are  furnished  by  nature.  Elaborate  designs,  of  straight 
and  curved  lines,  are  traced  on  the  skin,  and  these  are  gradually 
differentiated  and  become  marks  of  rank  and  function.  The  war 
paint  of  the  American  Indians  is  governed  by  fixed  rules,  the  object 
being  to  make  the  warrior  terrible  to  enemies.3  Rings,  quills,  sticks, 
and  stones,  worn  in  holes  made  in  ears,  nose,  lips,  and  cheeks, 
are  all  originally  decorative ;  and  so  also  prickings  and  gashes  in 
the  body,  often  in  regular  outlines.4 

116.  These  latter,  made  according  to  tribal  custom  and  law,  be- 
come tribal  marks  (tattoo),  and  are  then  essential  to  one's  standing 
in  the  community.    This  custom  is  general  in  Polynesia  and  in 

1  Westermarck,  Human  Marriage,  3d  ed.,  p.  541.  This  sexual  instinct  is  carried 
back  by  Darwin  {Descent  of  Man,  chap,  xii)  to  the  lower  animals. 

2  Cf.  Gen.  iii,  7.  There  is  no  conclusive  evidence  that  the  concealment  of  parts 
of  the  body  by  savages  is  prompted  by  modesty  (cf.  Ratzel,  History  of  Mankind,  i, 
93  ff.),  but  it  may  have  contributed  to  the  development  of  this  feeling. 

3  Cf.  Y.  Hirn^  Origins  of  Art,  chap.  xvi.  For  the  Maori  usage  see  R.  Taylor,  Arew 
Zealand  and  its  Inhabitants,  chap,  xviii. 

4  Cf.  Lucien  Carr, "  Dress  and  Ornaments  of  Certain  American  Indians  "  (in  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society,  1897). 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  55 

parts  of  North  America.1  The  use  of  oil  and  other  unguents  early 
established  itself  as  a  custom  of  savage  society.  They  were  prob- 
ably useful  in  a  variety  of  ways.  For  the  hair  they  made  up  for  the 
absence  of  comb  and  brush ;  in  combat  they  enabled  the  warrior 
to  slip  from  the  grasp  of  his  enemy ;  they  defended  the  naked 
body  from  rain,  and  from  soiling  and  injury  produced  by  contact 
with  the  earth  and  hard  bodies  ;  and  in  sickness  they  were  regarded 
as  curative.2    Oil  was  abundantly  used  as  an  article  of  food. 

117.  All  these  materials  of  decoration  are  transferred  to  the  serv- 
ice of  religion.  The  headdress  becomes  a  mask  to  represent  an  ani- 
mal in  a  sacred  ceremony,3  or  a  priestly  tiara.  In  such  ceremonies 
(especially  in  those  of  initiation)  the  painting  of  the  body  plays  an 
important  part,  the  traceries  varying  according  to  the  thing  repre- 
sented and  the  symbolism  of  the  action.4    It  is  often  difficult  to  see 

the  precise  significance  of  the  paintings,  but  in  certain  cases  they  are 
totemic  marks,  and  represent  whatever  is  sacred  in  totemic  belief.5 

118.  It  is  possible  to  construe  the  development  in  two  ways  :  the 
paintings  may  be  regarded  as  originally  totemic  or  other  clan  marks, 
and  as  afterwards  employed  as  ornaments,  or  the  order  of  move- 
ment may  be  taken  to  be  in  the  reverse  direction  ;  but  when  we 
consider  the  primitive  character  of  decoration,  the  second  sug- 
gestion seems  the  more  probable.  The  same  remark  applies  to  the 
practice  of  pricking,  scarring,  and  tattooing.6  For  the  body-markings 
blood  is  sometimes  employed,  perhaps  in  part  on  account  of  its 
decorative  color,  but  also  probably  with  a  religious  significance.7 


1  Ratzel,  op.  cit,  Index,  s.v.  Tattooing ■;  Boas,  The  Central  Eskimo,  p.  561  ;  Fro- 
benius,  Childhood  of  Man,  chap.  ii.  Among  some  tribes  (as  the  Fijians)  untattooed 
persons  are  denied  entrance  into  the  other  world.  Naturally  the  origin  of  tattoo  is 
by  some  tribes  referred  to  deities:  see  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  55  f. ;  Journal  of  the 
Anthropological  Institute,  xix,  100  (New  Zealand);  xvii,  31S  ff.  (Queen  Charlotte 
Islands  and  Alaska).  The  Ainu  hold  that  it  drives  away  demons  (Batchelor,  The 
Aim/,  p.  22).  2  Turner,  op.  cit.,  p.  141. 

3  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  chap.  vi. 

4  Frobenius,  Childhood  of  Man,  p.  31  ff.  ;  cf.  chap.  i. 

5  Spencer  and  Gillen,  op.  cit.,  chap.  vii. 

6  On  a  possible  connection  between  tattoo  marks  and  stigmata  cf.  W.  R.  Smith, 
Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  p.  334. 

7  See  §  23.  Blood  of  men  is  sometimes  drunk,  simply  to  assuage  thirst,  or  as  a 
curative  (Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central .  li/stralia,  pp.  462,  464). 


56       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

119.  Decoration  has  been  and  is  largely  employed  in  structures 
and  dress  connected  with  religious  life.  Posts  and  beams  of  houses, 
totem  posts  and  masts  of  vessels  are  covered  with  figures  in  which 
artistic  feeling  is  discernible  ; x  and  in  late  periods  all  the  resources 
of  art  are  devoted  to  the  form  and  adornments  of  temples,  altars, 
and  images.  The  designs  are  taken  from  familiar  objects,  mostly 
from  plants  and  animals.  The  ultimate  motive  is  love  of  orna- 
ment, which,  while  it  finds  abundant  expression  in  ordinary  social 
life,  has  its  greatest  development  in  religion  —  a  natural  result  of 
the  fact  that  in  a  large  part  of  human  history  religion  has  been  the 
chief  organizing  factor  of  society. 

120.  The  tendency  has  been  to  make  the  dress  of  ministers 
of  religion  ornate.2  This  tendency  has  arisen  partly  from  love  of 
ornament,  and  partly,  doubtless,  it  is  the  transference  of  court 
customs  to  religious  ceremonial.3 

121.  Symbolism  has  entered  largely  into  religious  decoration. 
In  very  early  times  figures  of  animals,  plants,  and  human  beings 
were  used  as  records  of  current  events,  and  were  sometimes  sup- 
posed to  have  magical  power,  the  picture  being  identified  with  the 
thing  represented.  In  a  more  advanced  stage  of  culture  the  tran- 
sition was  easy  to  the  conception  of  the  figures  as  representing 
ideas,  but  the  older  conception  is  often  found  alongside  of  the 
later — a  symbolical  signification  is  attached  to  pictures  of  historical 
things.  These  then  have  a  spiritual  meaning  for  higher  minds, 
while  for  the  masses  they  may  be  of  the  nature  of  fetishes.4  In 
both  cases  they  may  serve  a  good  purpose  in  worship  by  fixing 
the  mind  on  sacred  things. 


i  Seligmann,  The  Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  Index,  s.v.  Art,  decorative; 
lournal  of  American  Folklore,  vol.  xviii,  no.  69  (April,  1905). 

2  So  the  dress  of  the  Jewish  high  priest  (Ex.  xxviii),  that  of  the  Lamas  of  Tibet 
(Abbe  Hue,  Travels  in  Tartary,  Tibet,  and  China,  ii,  chap,  ii  ;  Rhys  Davids,  Bud- 
dhism, p.  250),  and  costumes  in  some  Christian  bodies. 

3  Of  the  same  nature  is  Jeremy  Taylor's  view  (An  Apology  for  authorized  and 
set  forms  of  Liturgy,  Question  I ,  §  7  ff .)  that,  as  earthly  monarchs  are  not  addressed 
in  the  language  of  everyday  familiar  intercourse,  so  it  is  not  proper  that  the  deity 
should  be  approached  with  other  than  choice  and  dignified  words — public  prayers 
should  be  carefully  worded. 

4  Cf.  A.  C.  H  addon,  article  "Art"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


EARL  \ '  RELIGIOUS  CEREMt  )A YES  5  7 

Economic  Ceremonies 

122.  The  first  necessity  of  savages  is  a  sufficient  supply  of  food, 
and  this,  they  hold,  is  to  be  procured  either  by  the  application  of 
what  they  conceive  to  be  natural  laws,  or  by  appeal  to  superhuman 
Powers.  Among  economic  ceremonies,  therefore,  we  may  distin- 
guish those  which  may  be  loosely  described  as  natural,  those  in 
which  a  supernatural  element  enters,  and  those  in  which  the  two 
orders  of  procedure  appear  to  be  combined. 

123.  Savages  are  generally  skillful  hunters.  They  know  how 
to  track  game,  to  prepare  nets  and  pits,  and  to  make  destructive 
weapons.  The  African  pygmies  have  poisoned  arrows,  with  which 
they  are  able  to  kill  the  largest  animals.1  The  people  of  British 
New  Guinea  organize  hunts  on  a  large  scale.2  In  Australia,  Poly- 
nesia, and  America  there  is  no  tribe  that  is  not  able  to  secure  food 
by  the  use  of  natural  means. 

124.  But  such  means  are  often  supplemented  by  ceremonies  that 
involve  some  sort  of  supernatural  influence.  These  ceremonies 
appear  to  assume  a  social  relation  between  man  and  beasts  and 
plants ;  in  some  cases  there  is  assumed  a  recognition  by  animals  of 
the  necessities  of  the  case  and  a  spirit  of  friendly  cooperation ;  in 
other  cases  a  magical  power  is  called  into  play. 

125.  Desire  to  propitiate  the  hunted  animal,  in  order  not  only 
to  avert  the  anger  of  its  kin  but  also  to  obtain  its  aid,  appears  in 
the  numerous  cases  in  which  excuses  are  made  for  the  killing,  and 
the  animal  is  implored  to  make  a  friendly  report  of  the  man  to 
its  friends  and  to  return  in  order  that  it  may  be  killed.3  Formal 
prayer  is  sometimes  made  to  the  animal  in  important  tribal  cere- 
monies, as  in  British  Columbia  a  boy  is  ordered  by  the  chief  to 
pray  to  the  first  salmon  sighted  for  a  good  catch  ; 4  here  the  good 
will  of  the  salmon  tribe  and  the  quasi-human  intelligence  of  the 
fish  are  assumed. 

1  A.  de  Quatrefages,  The  Pygmies^  p.  15;. 

2  Seligmann,  The  Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  Index,  s.v.  Hunting. 

3  Batchelor,  The  Ainu  (the  hunting  of  the  bear)  ;  and  so  many  American  tribes, 
and,  in  part,  some  half-civilized  peoples,  as  the  Arabs  of  North  Africa. 

4  Teit,  mjesup  North  Pacific  Expedition,  ii,  2S0. 


58       JXTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

126.  Precautions  are  taken  to  guard  against  antagonistic  extra- 
human  influences ;  there  are  taboos  and  rules  of  purification  in 
preparation  for  hunting.  In  New  Guinea  hunters  are  required  to 
abstain  from  certain  sorts  of  food  and  to  perform  purificatory  cere- 
monies.1 Among  the  Nandi  some  men  are  forbidden  to  hunt, 
make  traps,  or  dig  pits  for  game  ; 2  these  men,  it  would  seem,  are 
supposed  to  be,  for  ceremonial  reasons,  antipathetic  to  the  animals 
to  be  hunted,  as,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  men  who  attract 
game.3  The  taboos  of  food  and  other  things  imposed  are  doubt- 
less intended  to  guard  against  malefic  spirits  or  mana.  The  particu- 
lar rules  are  determined  by  local  conditions. 

127.  Certain  rules  about  eating  the  food  secured  by  hunting 
appear  to  have  come  from  the  desire  to  act  in  an  orderly  manner 
and  with  due  respect  to  the  animal.  When  it  is  prescribed  that  a 
bone  shall  not  be  broken  this  may  be  for  fear  of  giving  offense  to 
the  animal  kin  and  thus  insuring  failure  in  further  hunting.4  The 
provision  that  each  man  shall  gather  of  a  fruit  or  vegetable  only  so 
much  as  will  suffice  for  a  single  day  may  have  had  an  economic 
ground,  the  desire  to  avoid  waste ;  or  it  may  have  been  made  also 
partly  in  the  interest  of  orderliness,  and  so  have  had  originally  no 
reference  to  any  superhuman  being.5  Naturally  it  was  taken  up 
into  religion  and  given  a  religious  sanction. 

128.  In  Central  Australia,  where  every  clan  is  charged  with  the 
duty  of  procuring  a  particular  food  (its  totem)  for  the  tribe,  the 
custom  is  that  wjien  the  product  of  hunting  or  gathering  is  brought 
in  to  be  thrown  into  the  tribal  store,  the  principal  men  of  the  hunting 
group  begin  by  eating  a  little  of  the  food,  after  which  the  food  is 

1  Seligmann,  The  Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  p.  291  ff. 

2  Hollis,  The  Nandi,  p.  S  (cf.  p.  24). 

3  Hollis  (op.  cit.,  p.  6  f.)  relates  that  on  a  certain  occasion  when  his  party  was 
driven  from  its  wagons  by  a  swarm  of  bees,  a  Nandi  man  appeared,  announced  that 
he  was  of  the  bee  totem,  and  volunteered  to  restore  quiet,  which  he  did,  going  stark 
naked  into  the  swarm.  His  success  was  doubtless  due  to  his  knowledge  of  the  habits 
of  bees. 

4  So  in  the  Tsimshian  ceremony  in  eating  the  first  fish  caught  (Boas,  in  Fifth 
Report  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  vol.  lix,  p.  51).  Cf. 
the  Jewish  rule  (Ex.  xii,  46),  which  may  have  had  a  similar  origin. 

5  Teit,  in  lesnp  North  Pacific  Expedition,  ii,  282.  A  similar  provision  is  mentioned 
in  Ex.  xvi,  16-20. 


EARL  Y  RELIGIOUS  CEREMi  WIES  5 9 


has  been  held  to  have  a  sacramental  significance ;  it  has  been  sug- 
gested that  the  food  is  sanctified  by  the  touch  of  the  elders  and  thus 
made  lawful  for  the  tribe,  or  that,  as  naturally  sacred,  it  secures, 
when  eaten,  union  between  the  eater  and  a  superhuman  Power. 
But  there  is  no  hint  of  such  a  conception  in  the  Australian  ceremony 
or  elsewhere.  The  procedure  is  obligatory  and  solemn  —  to  omit  it 
would  be,  in  the  feeling  of  the  people,  to  imperil  the  life  of  the 
tribe  ;  but  all  such  usages  are  sanctified  by  time.  We  should  rather 
seek  for  the  origin  of  the  custom  in  some  simple  early  idea.  It  is 
not  unusual,  in  parts  of  Australia  and  in  other  lands,  that  a  man, 
though  he  may  not  eat  his  totem,  may  kill  it  for  others  ;  the  eating 
in  this  case  is  the  important  thing  —  there  is  magical  power  in  it  — 
and  the  economic  obligation  to  provide  food  overbears  the  sense  of 
reverence  for  the  totem.  The  only  obscure  point  in  the  ceremony 
under  consideration  is  the  obligation  on  the  killer  or  gatherer  to  taste 
the  food  before  he  gives  it  to  his  fellows.  This  may  be  a  survival 
of  the  rule,  known  to  exist  among  some  tribes,  that  in  a  hunting 
party  he  who  kills  an  animal  has  the  first  right  to  it.  The  Australian 
hunter  cannot  eat  his  totem,  but  he  may  hold  to  his  traditional  right ; 
the  result  will  be  the  custom  as  it  now  exists.  With  our  present 
knowledge  no  quite  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  origin  of  this 
particular  rule  can  be  given. 

129.  The  employment  of  magical  means  for  procuring  food 
appears  in  the  performance  of  ceremonial  dances,  in  the  use  of 
charms,  the  imitation  of  animals,  and  other  procedures.  In  Cali- 
fornia the  supply  of  acorns  and  animals  is  supposed  to  be  increased 
by  dances.2  The  New  Guinea  Koita  give  their  hunting  dogs  decoc- 
tions of  sago  and  other  food  into  which  are  put  pieces  of  odoriferous 
bark ; 3  these  charms  are  said  to  have  been  got  from  the  Papuans, 
the  lowest  race  of  the  region.  A  Pawnee  folk-story  (which  doubtless 
reflects  a  current  idea)  tells  how  a  boy  by  his  songs  (that  is,  magic 


1  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  167  f.,  and  Native 
Tribes  of  Northern  Australia,  p.  308  etc. ;  Strehlow,  Die  Aranda-  und  Loritjastdmme 
in  Zentralaustr alien,  part  ii,  p.  59  etc.  "2  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  285  f. 

3  Seligmann,  The  Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  p.  177  f. 


6o      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

songs  or  charms)  brought  the  buffalo  within  reach  of  his  people.1 
Among  the  Melanesians  of  New  Guinea  the  hunting  expert  plays  a 
great  role  —  his  presence  is  necessary  for  the  success  of  an  expedi- 
tion.2 He  fixes  the  date  of  the  hunt,  prepares  himself  by  a  series 
of  abstinences,3  and  at  the  appointed  time  assembles  the  men,  recites 
spells  addressed  to  ancestors,  and  passing  along  the  lines  of  the 
hunters  imitates  the  movements  of  the  animal  sought.4 

130.  Very  elaborate  ceremonies  including  imitations  of  animals 
imitative  or  sympathetic  magic)  are  found  in  Central  Australia.5 
When  any  animal  is  to  be  hunted  the  old  men  of  the  appropriate 
totemic  group,  dressed  to  imitate  the  totem  and  accompanied  by 
some  of  the  young  men,  repair  to  a  spot  regarded  as  sacred,  and, 
along  with  other  ceremonies,  trace  on  the  sacred  rock,  with  blood 
drawn  from  the  young  men,  a  picture  of  the  animal,  or  figures 
representing  its  growth  —  in  general,  something  that  sets  forth  its 
personality.  These  ceremonies,  very  numerous  and  extending  over 
a  long  space  of  time,  constitute  the  main  business  of  the  elders,  as, 
in  fact,  the  procuring  of  food  is  the  chief  concern  of  the  people. 

131.  There  is  no  perceptible  religious  element  in  these  Australian 
ceremonies  —  no  utterance  of  charms  or  prayers,  no  mention  of 
any  supernatural  being.  The  acts  appear  to  be  simply  procedures 
of  imitative  magic,  customs  sanctified  by  long  usage.  They  relate 
to  the  life  of  the  tribe  ;  this  life,  like  all  life,  is  mysterious  and  there- 
fore sacred.6  The  belief  in  the  potency  of  the  ceremonies  appears 
to  come  from  belief  in  the  vital  identity  of  the  two  groups,  human 
and  nonhuman  —  the  latter  is  supposed  to  respond,  in  some  occult 
way,  to  the  expression  of  kinship  involved  in  the  official  proceedings. 

132.  The  employment  of  blood  (considered  as  the  locus  of  life) 
may  indicate  more  definitely  a  sense  of  -the  unity  of  life-force ;  the 
human  blood  is,  perhaps,  supposed  to  stimulate  life  in  the  kindred 
animal  group,  and  so  to  produce  a  large  supply  of  individuals.    In 

1  Dorsey,  The  Skidi  Pawnee,  p.  149.  2  Seligmann,  op.  cit.,  p.  291  ff. 

3  Here  again  the  taboos  are  precautions  against  injurious  supernatural  influences. 

4  He  is  said  also  to  imitate  the  cries  of  animals  —  that  is,  he  combines  natural 
means  with  supernatural.  5  Spencer  and  Gillen,  and  Strehlow,  loc.  cit;. 

0  This  feeling  for  the  tribal  life  may  be  called  germinal  public  spirit.  Cf.  above, 
§  io3- 


EARL Y  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  6 1 

the  published  accounts  there  is  no  hint  that  the  blood  is  supposed 
to  have  atoning  power.  There  is  no  sense  of  wrongdoing  or  un- 
worthiness  on  the  part  of  the  performers,  or  of  any  relation  to  a 
deity.  The  theology  of  Central  Australia  is  still  obscure  —  the  gen- 
eral religious  situation  in  that  region  has  much  that  is  enigmatical. 

133.  A  more  advanced  ritual  occurs  among  certain  agricultural 
tribes,  among  whom  is  found  a  more  elaborate  use  of  blood  and  a 
definite  recognition  of  superhuman  beings.  In  these  communities 
it  is  regarded  as  necessary  to  profitable  tilling  to  fertilize  the  soil 
with  the  blood  of  a  slain  victim,  sometimes  human  (as  among  the 
Khonds  of  Orissa,  the  Pawnees,  and  others1),  sometimes  bestial  (as 
in  Southern  India2);  parts  of  the  victim's  flesh  are  buried,  or  blood 
is  sprinkled  on  the  seed,  and  homage  is  paid  to  a  sacred  stone  or 
some  similar  object. 

134.  In  more  civilized  agricultural  communities  these  ceremonies 
persist  in  attenuated  form.  There  is  a  sacrifice  of  first-born  animals 
to  a  deity  and  an  offering  of  the  first  fruits  of  the  field  ;  and  as  chil- 
dren, no  less  than  crops,  are  the  gift  of  the  gods,  whose  bounty 
must  be  recognized,  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  that,  along  with  the 
first  fruits  of  the  field,  first-born  children  are  sometimes  sacrificed  to 
the  deity.  Such  a  custom  is  reported  as  existing  or  having  existed 
in  New  South  Wales,  Florida,  East  Africa,  heathen  Russia,  the  Fiji 
Islands,  and  Northern  India.3  A  trace  of  the  custom  among  the 
early  Hebrews  is,  probably,  to  be  recognized  in  the  provision  of  the 
Old  Testament  code  that  the  first-born  children  are  to  be  redeemed 
by  an  animal  sacrifice.4 

135.  In  the  course  of  time  many  ceremonies  grew  up  in  connec- 
tion with  the  procuring  and  housing  of  crops  and  other  supplies. 
In  Australia  the  men  of  the  clan  charged  with  assuring  any  sort  of 
food  were  unarmed  and  fasted  during  their  ceremony.5  Among  the 
Kondyan  plowing  and  sowing  are  solemn  seasons,  an  auspicious 

1  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  ii,  238  ff.         -  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  526. 

3  Frazer  (Golden  Dough,  2d  ed.,  ii,  43  ff.)  refers  to  B.  Smyth,  Aborigines  of  Victoria^ 
ii,  31 1  ;  Strachey,  Historic,  p.  84  ;  Krapf,  Travels,  p.  69  f. ;  Mone,  Geschichte  des  Hei- 
denihums  im  nordlichen  Eurofa,  i,  119.  Sec,  further,  'J'.  Williams  and  Calvert,  Fiji, 
p.  181  f. ;  W.  Crooke,  Popular  Religion  and  Folklore  of  Northern  India,  ii,  169. 

4  Ex.  xxii,  29  [28]  ;  xiii,  12,  13.  5  Spencer  and  Gillen,  op.  cit.,  chap.  vi. 


62       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

day  is  chosen,  and  there  are  religious  songs  and  choruses.1  For 
the  Hos  of  Northeastern  India  the  harvest  home  is  a  great  fes- 
tival, held  with  sacrifice  and  prayer  (though  also  with  great  license 
of  manners).2  A  dim  conception  of  law  underlies  all  these  proce- 
dures. The  law  is  sometimes  natural,  as  in  imitative  processes, 
sometimes  religious,  as  when  blood  is  employed  or  the  agency  of 
religious  official  persons  is  called  in. 

136.  The  economical  importance  of  rain  has  led  to  various  quasi- 
scientific  and  magical  devices  for  securing  it,  and  to  the  rise  of  pro- 
fessional rain  makers.  The  methods  commonly  employed  are  mimic 
representations  of  rainfall  or  of  a  storm.3  The  Australian  Arunta 
have  a  rain  clan  whose  function  is  to  bring  the  desired  supply 
by  nonsacred  dancing  festivals  and  sacred  ceremonies.  A  more 
advanced  method  is  to  dip  a  stone,  as  rain-god,  into  a  stream.4 
Certain  American  tribes  assign  the  duty  of  rain  making  to  secret 
societies  or  to  priests. 

137.  All  such  economical  ceremonies  disappear  with  the  progress 
of  knowledge,  though  traces  of  them  linger  long  in  civilized  com- 
munities. Messrs.  Spencer  and  Gillen  note  the  gradual  disappear- 
ance of  the  economical  and  magical  aspect  of  ceremonies  in  parts 
of  Australia,  and  a  similar  process  is  to  be  observed  elsewhere.5 

Apotropaic  Ceremonies 

138.  The  savage  and  half-civilized  belief  (a  belief  that  has  sur- 
vived to  some  extent  in  civilized  communities)  is  that  the  ills  that 
afflict  or  threaten  a  community  (such  as  epidemics  and  shortage  of 
crops)  are  due  not  to  natural  causes  but  to  supernatural  agencies. 

1  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xxv,  104  ff. 

2  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  iil,  78. 

3  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xxiii,  iS  ;  xxvi,  30.  Other  examples  are 
given  by  Frazer  in  his  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  i,  81  ff.,  163  ;  he  cites  cases  of  persons 
(priests  and  kings)  held  responsible  for  rain,  and  put  to  death  if  they  failed  to 
supply  it. 

4  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  145.  On  certain  Roman  ceremonies  (that  of  the  lapis  mana- 
lis  and  others)  that  have  been  supposed  to  be  connected  with  rain  making  see  Wis- 
sowa,  Religion  u ml  /Cult us  der  R'dmer,  p.  106  ;  W.  W.  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals  of  the 
Period  of  the  Republic,  iii. 

5  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Northern  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  23. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  63 

But  man,  it  is  held,  may  control  the  hostile  supernatural  agents  — 
they  are  subject  to  fear  and  other  emotions,  and  though  powerful  are 
not  omnipotent ;  they  may  be  expelled  or  otherwise  got  rid  of  — 
violence  may  be  used  against  them,  or  the  aid  of  stronger  super- 
natural Powers  may  be  called  in.  In  pursuance  of  these  ends 
ceremonies  have  been  devised  in  many  parts  of  the  world ;  though 
differing  in  details  they  are  alike  in  principle ;  the  question  is  how 
man  may  become  the  master  of  the  demons.  The  ceremonies  are 
sometimes  performed  on  the  occasion  of  particular  afflictions,  some- 
times are  massed  at  stated  seasons,  as  at  the  beginning  of  the  year 
or  in  connection  with  some  agricultural  festival. 

139.  Man's  defensive  attitude  toward  the  supernatural  world 
appears  in  many  usages  connected  with  ordinary  life.  Fear  of  the 
hostility  of  ghosts  has  led  surviving  friends  to  take  precautions 
against  their  return  —  their  own  houses  are  closed  to  them  and 
they  are  driven  away  with  blows.1  They  are  too  near  akin  to  be 
trusted,  and  they  are  believed  to  be  able  and  willing  to  do  harm.2 
At  the  other  extreme  of  life,  when  the  child  comes  into  the  world, 
mother  and  child  must  be  guarded  against  hostile  demonic  in- 
fluences.3 When  a  demon  is  known  to  have  entered  into  a  human 
being,  producing  sickness  or  madness,  exorcism  must  be  resorted 
to ;  magicians,  prophets,  and  saints  are  able  by  ceremonies  or  by 
prayer  to  expel  the  intruder  and  restore  the  afflicted  to  health. 
Ritual  taint  (which  is  supernatural),  incurred,  for  example,  by  touch- 
ing a  dead  body,  is  removed  by  sprinkling  with  sacred  water.4 

140.  But  the  term  "  apotropaic  "  is  generally  used  of  expulsive 
ceremonies  in  which  a  whole  community  takes  part.  In  the  sim- 
plest forms  of  procedure  the  hostile  spirits  are  driven  out  of  the 
village  by  shouts  and  blows;  crowds  of  men  rush  through  the 
streets,  searching  houses,  expelling  spirits  at  every  possible  point 
of  ingress,  and  finally  forcing  them  outside  the  limits  of  the  com- 
munity.    Examples  of  such  a  custom   are  found   in  the   Pacific 

1  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture^  i,  454;  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the 
Moral  Ideas,  i, ^52  ff.;  ii,  532  ff. 

2  There  is,  of  course,  another  side  to  the  character  of  ghosts  —  sometimes  they 
are  friendly.  3  pioss,  Das  Kind,  2d  ed.,  i,  chap.  iv.  4  Numb.  xix. 


64       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Islands,  Australia,  Japan,  Indonesia,  West  Africa,  Cambodia,  India, 
North  America  (Eskimo),  South  America  (Peru),1  and  there  are 
survivals  in  modern  Europe.  -In  China  this  wholesale  expulsion  is 
still  practiced  in  a  very  elaborate  form.2  Among  the  Ainu,  it  is  said, 
on  the  occasion  of  any  accident  the  "  spirit  of  accidents  "  (a  useful 
generalization)  is  driven  away  by  the  community.3  In  these  cases 
the  spirits  are  thought  of  as  being  in  a  sort  corporeal,  sensitive  to 
blows,  and  also  as  afraid  of  noise.  There  is  sometimes  a  combi- 
nation of  natural  and  supernatural  conceptions :  while  the  violent 
expulsive  process  is  going  on  the  household  utensils  are  vigorously 
washed  by  the  women ;  washing,  known  to  cleanse  from  mere 
physical  dirt,  here  also  takes  on,  from  its  association  with  the  men's 
ceremony  of  expulsion,  a  supernatural  potency  —  it  removes  the 
injurious  mana  of  the  hostile  spirits. 

141.  Less  violent  methods  of  riddance  may  be  employed.  Evil, 
being  a  physical  thing,  may  be  embodied  in  some  object,  nonhuman 
or  human,  which  is  then  carried  forth  or  sent  away  to  some  distant 
point,  or  destroyed.  With  this  principle  of  transference  may  be 
compared  the  conception  of  solidarity  of  persons  and  things  in  a 
tribe  or  other  community :  what  one  unit  does  or  suffers  affects  all 
—  the  presence  of  an  accursed  thing  with  one  person  brings  a  curse 
on  his  nation,4  and  conversely,  the  removal  of  the  evil  thing  or  per- 
son removes  the  curse,  which  may,  under  certain  circumstances, 
be  shifted  fo  some  other  place  or  person. 

142.  The  particular  method  of  expulsion  or  transference  is  im- 
material.5 The  troublesome  evil  may  be  carted  or  boated  away 
according  to  local  convenience,  or  it  may  depart  in  the  person  of 
an  animal.  Leprous  taint  is  transferred  to  a  bird,  which,  having 
been  dipped  in  the  blood  of  a  sacred  animal,  is  allowed  to  fly  away 
carrying  the  taint  off  from  the  community.6  Even  moral  evils  (sin) 
may  thus  be  got  rid  of.  In  the  great  Hebrew  annual  ceremony 
of  atonement  not  only  the  ritual  impurity  of  the  sanctuary  and 


1  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  iii,  39  ff. 

2  J.  J.  M.  de  Groot,  Religion  of  the  Chinese,  chap.  ii. 

3  Batchelor,  The  Ainu,  new  ed.,  p.  321  f.  4  Josh,  vii  (story  of  Achan). 

5  Examples  are  given  in  Frazer's  Golden  Bough,  loc.  cit.  c  Lev.  xiv,  1-9. 


EARL  Y  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  6  5 

the  altar,  but  also  the  sin  of  the  nation,  is  laid  on  a  goat  and  sent 
away  to  the  wilderness  demon,  Azazel.1 

143.  Examples  of  human  apotropaic  vehicles  occur  in  the  ancient 
civilized  world.  In  the  Athenian  Thargelia  the  Pharmakos  was 
supposed  to  bear  in  his  person  crimes  and  evils,  and  was  driven 
forth  from  the  city.2  The  same  conception  is  found,  perhaps,  in  the 
Roman  Mamuralia  and  Lupercalia.  In  the  first  of  these  Mamcr- 
tius  is  driven  forth  from  the  city  and  consigned  to  the  keeping  of 
hostile  persons;3  in  the  second,  young  men  ran  about  the  streets 
beating  the  women  with  strips  of  goatskin,  the  skin  being  that  of  a 
sacred  animal  —  a  proceeding  that  was  regarded  as  purificatory, 
and  seems  to  be  naturally  explicable  as  an  expulsion  of  evil  spirits 
or  injurious  mana.4 

144.  In  another  direction  expulsion  of  evil,  or  protection  against 
it,  is  effected  by  the  blood  of  a  sacrificed  (and  therefore  sacred) 
animal.  A  well-known  example  of  this  sort  of  ceremony  is  the 
Hebrew  pesah  (the  old  lamb  ceremony,  later  combined  with  the 
agricultural  festival  of  unleavened  bread,  at  the  time  of  the  first 
harvest,  the  two  together  then  constituting  the  passover)  ;  here 
the  doorposts  and  lintel  of  every  house  were  sprinkled  with  the 
blood  of  a  slain  lamb  by  the  master  of  the  house,5  and  the  hostile 
spirits  hovering  in  the  air  were  thus  prevented  from  entering.  The 
sacred  blood  seems  to  have  been  conceived  of  as  carrying  with  it 
the  power  of  the  family  god  (who  was  also  the  clan  god),  which 
overbore  that  of  the  demons  (in  the  earliest  period,  however,  the 
efficacy  was  doubtless  held  to  reside  simply  in  the  blood  itself). 
The  ceremony  belonged  to  each  family,  but  it  belonged  also  to  the 
clan  since  it  was  performed  by  every  family,  and  Ultimately  it  became 
a  national  usage. 

1  Lev.  xvi.  Cf.  the  vision  (Zech.  v,  5  ff.)  in  which  wickedness  (or  guilt),  in  the 
shape  of  a  woman,  is  represented  (in  no  brotherly  spirit)  as  being  transferred  from 
Jewish  soil  to  Shinar  (Chaldea). 

2  Miss  J.  E.  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  p.  95  ff. 

3  Later  the  festival  was  certainly  connected  with  the  driving  forth  of  winter,  but 
its  earlier  form  was,  probably,  as  given  above. 

4  W.  W.  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  Index,  s.v.  Mamurms,  Lupercalia.  The  beat- 
ing was  supposed  also  to  have  fertilizing  power ;  cf.  S.  Hartland,  Primitive  Paternity, 
i,  100  ff.  5  Deut.  xvi;  Ex.  xii. 


66       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

145.  Apotropaic  ceremonies  appear  to  have  been  performed 
originally  at  various  times  during  the  year  as  occasions  arose ; 
the  increasing  pressure  of  occupations,1  the  necessity  of  consulting 
people's  convenience,  and  the  demand  for  order  and  precision  led 
here  (as  in  other  cases)  to  the  massing  of  the  observances.  When 
so  massed  they  begin  to  lose  their  original  significance,  to  yield  to 
the  knowledge  of  natural  law,  to  be  reinterpreted  from  time  to  time, 
and  finally  to  become  mere  social  events  or  to  be  dropped  altogether. 
Apotropaism  has  hardly  survived  at  all  in  the  higher  religions.'2  In 
popular  customs  it  appears  in  the  reliance  placed  on  horseshoes 
and  other  objects  as  means  of  keeping  witches  and  similar  demonic 
things  out  of  houses.3 

Ceremonies  of  Pubert.y  and  Initiation 

146.  Ceremonies  in  connection  with  the  arrival  of  young  persons, 
male  and  female,  at  the  age  of  maturity  appear  to  be  universal,  and 
they  yield  in  importance  to  no  other  class  of  social  procedures. 
The  basis  of  most  of  these  is  civil ;  their  object  is  to  prepare  young 
persons  for  entering  on  the  active  duties  of  what  may  be  called 
citizenship.  They  involve  a  distinct  idea  of  the  importance  of  the 
clan,  the  necessity  of  maintaining  its  life  unimpaired,  and,  to  that 
end,  preparing  with  the  utmost  care  the  younger  portion  of  the 
community  to  take  up  the  duties  of  the  older.  The  boys  are  to 
be  trained  to  be  the  hunters  and  rulers  of  the  clan,  the  girls  are  to 
be  fitted  to  become  the  wives  and  mothers  of  the  next  generation. 
But  while  the  ceremonies  in  question  have  their  foundation  in  the 
needs  of  civil  life,#iey  inevitably  receive  a  religious  coloring,  since 
religion  is  intimately  connected  with  all  the  details  of  early  life. 

147.  Among  the  details  of  the  initiation  of  boys,  tests  of  en- 
durance occupy  a  prominent  place.  In  various  ways  the  capacity 
of  the  lad  to  endure  physical  pain  or  to  face  apparent  dangers  is 

1  In  some  savage  tribes  the  older  men  seem  to  have  nothing  to  do  but  arrange 
ceremonies. 

2  There  is  a  faint  survival,  perhaps,  in  the  use  of  incense  in  churches. 

3  A.  Wuttke,  Derdeutsche  Volksabcrglaube der Gegenwarl,  ed.  E.  H.  Meyer,  Index ; 
J.  H.  King,  The  Supernatural,  i,  m  ff. 


EARL  Y  RELIC rIOUS  CEREMi  WIES  67 

tested,1  and  in  some  cases  one  who  fails  to  stand  such  tests  is  re- 
fused admission  into  the  clan  and  forever  after  occupies  an  infe- 
rior and  despised  position.  Such  persons  are  sometimes  treated 
as  women ;  they  are  required  to  wear  women's  dress  and  to  do 
menial  work.2 

148.  The  seclusion  of  girls  or!  arriving  at  the  age  of  puberty,  with 
imposition  of  various  taboos  (of  food,  etc.),  is  a  widespread  cus- 
tom. The  mysterious  change  in  the  girl  is  supposed  to  be  produced 
by  some  supernatural  and  dangerous  Power,  and  she  is  therefore  to 
be  shielded  from  contact  with  all  injurious  things.  The  details  of 
the  procedure  depend  on  local  ideas,  but  the  principle  is  the  same 
everywhere.  The  object  is  the  preparation  of  the  girl  for  civic  life, 
and  the  ceremony  inevitably  becomes  connected  with  tribal  cults  of 
the  supernatural  Powers.3 

149.  A  rearrangement  of  taboos  is  a  frequent  feature  in  cere- 
monies of  puberty  and  initiation.  Certain  taboos,  no  longer  needed, 
are  removed  and  others  are  imposed  ;  these  latter  refer,  in  the  case 
of  boys,  to  intercourse  with  the  men  and  women  of  the  clan  or 
tribe  —  they  are  instructed  not  to  speak  to  certain  persons,  and 
in  general  they  are  made  acquainted  with  the  somewhat  elaborate 
social  system  that  prevails  in  many  early  tribes.  These  taboos  are 
intended  to  prepare  the  boys  to  understand  their  position  as  members 
of  the  tribe,  responsible  for  the  maintenance  of  its  customs.  The 
taboos  relating  to  food  have  arisen  from  conditions  whose  origins 
belong  to  a  remote  and  unrecorded  past,  and  remain  obscure.4 

150.  When  the  ceremony  of  initiation  is  elaborate  and  secret, 
it  becomes  mysterious  to  boys,  is  looked  forward  to  by  them  with 
apprehension,  and  appeals  to  their  imagination.  Supernatural  terrors 
are  provided  by  the  leaders  —  noises  are  heard  (made  by  the  bull- 
roarer  or  some  similar  device),  and  the  report  is  circulated  that  the 

1  Journal of 'the  Anthropological Institute,  xii,  i2off.  (Andaman  Islands)  ;  ibid,  xxv, 
188  (East  Africa)  ;  Frobenius,  Childhood  of  Man,  chap,  iii ;  Frazer,  Golden  Bough, 
2d  ed.,  iii,  422  ff. 

2  A.  L.  Kroeber,  in  University  of  California  Publications  in  American  Archeology 
and  Ethnology,  ii,  viii ;  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas, 
chap,  xliii  (on  homosexual  relations). 

s  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  i,  326  ;  iii,  204  ff. ;  Hartland,  Primitive  Paternity, 
Index,  s.v.  Puberty  ;  Crawley,  The  Mystic  Rose,  p.  55.     4  See  below,  under  "  Taboo." 


68       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

initiate  is  in  danger  of  death  at  the  hands  of  a  supernatural  being. 
These  methods  testify  to  the  importance  attached  by  early  societies 
to  the  introduction  of  the  young  into  social  and  political  life,  and 
they  furnish  an  early  example  of  the  employment  of  the  super- 
natural for  the  government  of  the  masses.  The  old  men  do  not 
believe  in  their  supernatural  machinery,  and  the  boys,  after  initia- 
tion, are  let  into  the  secret. 

151.  Mutilation  of  the  body  is  a  widespread  custom  in  connection 
with  initiation  and  arrival  at  the  age  of  puberty.1  In  most  cases  the 
origin  of  mutilating  customs  is  obscure.  Imitation  of  the  form  or 
appearance  of  a  sacred  animal,  embellishment  of  the  initiate,  or 
consecration  of  a  part  of  the  body  to  a  deity  have  been  suggested 
as  motives ;  but  there  is  no  clear  evidence  of  such  designs.  The 
knocking  out  of  a  tooth  may  be  for  convenience  in  taking  food ; 
it  seems  not  to  have  religious  significance  except  in  so  far  as  all 
tribal  marks  become  religiously  important.2  Boring  through  the 
septum  of  the  nose  is  perhaps  for  decorative  purposes.  The  cut- 
ting of  the  hair  is  possibly  for  convenience,  possibly  for  dedication 
to  a  deity.3 

152.  Among  the  most  important  of  the  customs  of  initiation 
are  those  connected  with  the  organs  of  generation,  excluding,  as  is 
remarked  above,  complete  excision,  which  belongs  to  conceptions 
of  religious  asceticism  (consecration  to  a  deity,  preservation  against 
temptation)  in  the  higher  cults,  and  is  not  found  among  savages.4 
Partial  excision  occurs  in  circumcision,  for  males,  and  in  similar 
operations  for  females. 

153.  Circumcision  of  males. h  The  most  widely  diffused  of  such 
customs  of  initiation  is  the  gashing  or  the  complete  removal  of  the 

1  Emasculation,  of  course,  does  not  belong  here ;  it  is  not  a  custom  of  initiation 
proper.  2  Cf.  Crawley,  The  Mystic  Rose,  p.  135. 

3  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xxvii,  406  (Omahas).  On  mutilation  as 
a  general  religious  rite  see  H.  Spencer,  Principles  of  Sociology,  i,  189,  290,  and  as  pun- 
ishment, Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  Index,  s.v. 
Mutilation. 

4  Roscher,  Lexikon,  articles  "  Attis,"  "  Kybele."  Origen  is  a  noteworthy  example 
in  Christian  times  ;  cf.  Matt,  xix,  12. 

5  For  details  of  diffusion,  methods,  etc.,  see  article  "  Circumcision  "  in  Hastings, 
Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  69 

prepuce.  It  existed  in  ancient  times  among  the  Egyptians,  the 
Canaanites,  and  the  Hebrews  (for  the  Arabs,  the  Syrians,  and  the 
Babylonians  and  Assyrians  we  have  no  information),  not,  so  far  as 
the  records  go,  among  the  Greeks,  Romans,  and  Hindus.  At  the 
present  time  it  is  found  among  all  Moslems  and  most  Jewish  com- 
munities, throughout  Africa,  Australia,  Polynesia  and  Melanesia, 
and,  it  is  said,  in  Eastern  Mexico.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  say  what 
its  original  distribution  was,  and  whether  or  not  there  was  a  single 
center  of  distribution.  As  to  its  origin  many  theories  have  been 
advanced.  Its  character  as  initiatory  is  not  an  explanation  —  all 
customs  of  initiation  need  to  have  their  origins  explained.  It  may 
be  said  at  the  outset  that  a  usage  prevalent  in  low  tribes  and  clearly 
beginning  under  savage  conditions  of  life  must,  probably,  have 
sprung  from  some  simple  physical  need,  not  from  advanced  scien- 
tific or  religious  conceptions.  We  may  briefly  examine  the  principal 
explanations  of  its  origin  that  have  been  offered. 

154.  It  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  test  of  endurance,  for  it  involves 
no  great  suffering,  and  neither  it  nor  the  severer  operation  of  sub- 
incision1  (practiced  in  Australia)  is  ever  spoken  of  as  an  official  test. 

155.  A  hygienic  ground  is  out  of  the  question  for  early  society. 
The  requisite  medical  observation  is  then  lacking,  and  there  is 
no  hint  of  such  a  motive  in  the  material  bearing  on  the  subject. 
Circumcision  is  employed  in  modern  surgery  for  certain  diseases 
and  as  a  generally  helpful  operation,  but  such  employment  appears 
to  be  modern  and  of  limited  extent.  The  exact  meaning  of  Herod- 
otus's  statement  that  the  Egyptians  were  circumcised  for  the  sake 
of  cleanliness,  preferring  it  to  beauty,"  is  not  clear ;  but  in  any  case 
so  late  an  idea  throws  no  light  on  the  beginnings. 

156.  Somewhat  more  to  the  point  is  Crawley's  view  that  the 
object  of  the  removal  of  the  prepuce  is  to  get  rid  of  the  dangerous 
emanation  from  the  physical  secretion  therewith  connected.3  Such 
an  object  would  issue  from  savage  ideas  of  magic,  the  secretions 
of  the  human  body  (as  urine  and  dung)  being  often  supposed  to 
contain   the   power   resident   in   all   life.     But   this  view,   though 

1  This  is  an  incision  of  the  penis  from  the  meatus  down  to  the  scrotal  pouch. 

2  Herodotus,  ii,  yj.  3  Crawley.  The  Mystic  Rose,  p.  137  f. 


;o       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

conceivably  correct,  is  without  support  from  known  facts.  There  is 
no  trace  of  fear  of  the  secretion  in  question,  and  the  belief  in  power, 
when  such  a  belief  appears,  attaches  rather  to  the  oblated  prepuce 
(which  is  sometimes  preserved  as  a  sort  of  charm,  or  hidden,  or 
swallowed  by  the  boy  or  by  some  other  person)  than  to  the  secretion. 
Nor  does  this  theory  account  for  the  custom  of  subincision. 

157.  As  circumcision  is  often  performed  shortly  before  marriage 
it  has  been  suggested  that  its  object  is  to  increase  procreative 

^>ower  by  preventing  phimosis.1  The  opinion  that  such  is  its  effect, 
though  it  has  no  scientific  support,  has  been  and  is  held  by  not  a 
few  persons.  Such  an  object,  however,  is  improbable  for  low  stages 
of  society  —  it  implies  an  extent  of  observation  that  is  not  to  be 
assumed  for  savages ;  and  there  is,  besides,  the  fact  that  certain 
tribes  (in  Australia  and  elsewhere)  that  practice  circumcision  do  not 
connect  the  birth  of  children  with  sexual  intercourse.  In  general  it 
is  not  to  be  supposed  that  savages  make  well-considered  physical 
preparation  for  marriage  in  the  interests  of  procreation.  The  choice 
of  mates  is  determined  by  tribal  law,  but  in  other  respects  the  in- 
dividual is  generally  left  free  before  marriage  to  satisfy  his  appetite 
—  it  is  instinct  that  controls  the  relations  between  the  sexes. 

158.  There  is  no  clear  evidence  that  the  origin  of  circumcision 
is  to  be  traced  to  religious  conceptions.  It  has  been  held  that  it  is 
connected  with  the  cult  of  the  generative  organs  (phallic  worship).2 
It  is  true  that  a  certain  sacredness  often  attached  to  these  organs ; 
this  appears,  for  example,  in  the  oath  taken  by  laying  the  hands  upon 
or  under  the  thigh,  as  in  the  story  of  Abraham.3  In  some  parts  of 
Africa  circumcision  is  directly  connected  or  combined  with  the  wor- 
ship of  the  phallus.4  But,  on  the  other  hand,  each  of  these  customs  is 
found  frequently  without  the  other:  in  India  we  have  phallic  worship 
without  circumcision,  in  Australia  circumcision  without  phallic  wor- 
ship ;  and  this  separateness  of  the  two  may  be  said  to  be  the  rule. 
The  cult  of  the  phallus  seems  not  to  exist  among  the  lowest  peoples. 

159.  The  view  that  circumcision  is  of  the  nature  of  a  sacrifice 
or  dedication  to  a  deity,  particularly  to  a  deity  of  fertility,  appears 

1  Ploss,  Das  Kind,  2d  ed.,  i,  368  f.  3  Gen.  xxiv,  2  f. 

2  On  phallic  cults  see  below,  §  388  ff .  4  A.  B.  Ellis,  The  Yoruba,  p.  66. 


EA  RL  J '  RELIGIO  US  CEREMOj  \  TIES  7 1 

to  be  derived  from  late  usages  in  times  when  more  refined  ideas 
have  been  attached  to  early  customs.  The  Phrygian  practice  of 
excision  was  regarded,  probably,  as  a  sacrifice.  But  elsewhere,  in 
Egypt,  Babylonia,  Syria,  and  Canaan,  where  the  worship  of  gods 
and  goddesses  of  fertility  was  prominent,  we  do  not  find  circum- 
cision connected  therewith.  In  the  writings  of  the  Old  Testament 
prophets  it  is  treated  as  a  symbol  of  moral  purification.  Among 
the  lower  peoples  there  is  no  trace  of  the  conception  of  it  as  a 
sacrifice.  It  is  not  circumcision  that  makes  the  phallus  sacred  — 
it  is  sacred  in  itself,  and  all  procedures  of  savage  veneration  for 
the  prepuce  assume  its  inherent  potency. 

160.  Nor  can  circumcision  be  explained  as  an  attenuated  sur- 
vival of  human  sacrifice.  The  practice  (in  Peru  and  elsewhere)  of 
drawing  blood  from  the  heads  or  hands  of  children  on  solemn 
occasions  may  be  a  softening  of  an  old  savage  custom,  and  the 
blood  of  circumcision  is  sacred.  But  this  quality  attaches  to  all 
blood,  and  the  essential  thing  in  circumcision  is  not  the  blood  but 
the  removal  of  the  prepuce. 

161.  The  suggestion  that  the  object  of  detaching  and  preserving 
the  foreskin  (a  vital  part  of  one's  self)  is  to  lay  up  a  stock  of  vital 
energy,  and  thus  secure  reincarnation  for  the  disembodied  spirit,1 
is  putting  an  afterthought  for  origin.  The  existence  of  the  practice 
in  question  is  doubtful,  and  it  must  have  arisen,  if  it  existed,  after 
circumcision  had  become  an  established  custom.  Savages  and  other 
peoples,  when  they  feel  the  need  of  providing  for  reincarnation, 
commonly  preserve  the  bones  or  the  whole  body  of  the  deceased. 

162.  Circumcision  and  other  operations  performed  on  females. 
Circumcision  of  girls  is  practiced  by  many  African  savage  tribes 
(Nandi,  Masai,  Mandingos,  and  others),  by  Malays  and  Arabs, 
Gallas  and  Abessinians  and  others.  Introcision  appears  to  be  con- 
fined to  Australia.  Infibulation  is  practiced  in  Northeastern  Africa 
and  by  the  Mohammedan  Malays.'2    The  effect,  and  doubtless  the 

1  J.  G.  Frazer,  in  the  Independent  Review^  iv,  204  ff. 

2  Circumcision  of  females  is  the  removal  of  the  clitoris  and  the  labia  minora  ;  in- 
trocision is  the  enlargement  of  the  vaginal  orifice  by  tearing  it  downwards ;  infibula- 
tion  is  the  closing  of  the  labia  just  after  circumcision.  Cf.  Ploss,  Das  Weil>,  26.  ed.,  i, 
chap.  v. 


72       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

purpose,  of  the  first  and  second  of  these  operations  is  to  facilitate 
coition  ;  the  object  of  the  third  is  to  prevent  coition  until  the  proper 
time  for  it  arrives.  They  are  all  connected  more  or  less  with  initia- 
tion or  with  arrival  at  the  age  of  puberty,  and  they  are,  naturally, 
sometimes  associated  with  other  ceremonies. 

163.  Origin  of  circumcision.  The  preceding  review  may  be  taken 
to  make  it  probable  that  the  origin  of  circumcision  is  not  to  be 
referred  to  reflection  or  to  religious  ideas.  We  must  look  for  a 
cruder  motive,  and  several  considerations  point  to  the  desire  to 
facilitate  coition  as  the  starting  point  of  the  custom.  Reports  from 
all  over  the  savage  world  testify  to  the  prominence  of  sexual  in- 
tercourse in  the  lower  forms  of  human  life.  Folk-stories  are  full 
of  coarse  details  of  the  practice.  Popular  festivals  are  often  char- 
acterized by  gross  license.  To  lend  a  wife  to  a  guest  is  in  many 
places  a  recognized  rule  of  hospitality.1  In  all  this  there  is  nothing 
immoral  —  it  is  permitted  by  the  existing  law  and  is  in  accord  with 
the  current  ideas  of  propriety.  Early  man  seems  in  this  regard  to 
have  obeyed  his  animal  appetite  without  reflection,  so  far  hardly 
differing  from  the  brutes.  This  form  of  pleasure  occupied  (and 
occupies)  a  great  part  of  his  life,  and  it  was  not  unnatural  that  he 
should  seek  to  remove  all  hindrances  from  it.  It  is  quite  conceivable 
that  early  observation  led  him  to  regard  the  prepuce  as  a  hindrance. 

164.  About  the  motives  of  early  man  in  the  adoption  of  these 
customs  of  excision  we  have,  of  course,  no  direct  information ; 
but  some  later  usages  favor  the  explanation  suggested  above. 
The  operations  performed  on  females  are  obviously  dictated  by 
considerations  of  convenience  or  propriety  in  coition.  Various 
means  are  adopted  of  increasing  the  pleasure  of  sexual  intercourse 
(in  Indonesia  and  elsewhere).2  These  procedures  are  purely  ani- 
mal, nonmoral,  and  without  ulterior  design  ;  there  is  no  thought  of 
progeny  or,  in  general,  of  preparation  for  marriage  —  the  frame  of 
mind  is  appropriate  to  the  lowest  grade  of  life. 

1  Cf.  also  the  great  extent  to  which  masturbation  prevails  among  savages.  Cf. 
Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  chap,  xliii. 

2  A  rod  is  thrust  through  the  glans  of  the  penis  ;  see  Roth,  in  Journal  of  the  An- 
thropological Institute,  xxii,  45  (the  palang)  ;  cf.  Ploss,  Das  IVeib,  2d  ed.,  i,  chap,  xi ; 
J.  Ma.cdox\d\&,  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xx,  116. 


EA  RL  V  RELIGIO  US  CEREMONIES  7  3 

165.  In  the  course  of  time,  however,  all  such  customs  tend  to 
become  sanctified  and  to  take  on  new  meanings.  When  the  im- 
portance of  circumcision  was  generally  felt,  it  was  natural  that 
it  should  be  performed  at  puberty  and  at  initiation.1  It  would 
thus  come  to  be  regarded  as  an  introduction  to  the  tribal  life  — 
not  as  preparation,  but  as  a  custom  established  by  unwritten  law. 
Its  origination  would  be  put  far  back  in  the  past  and  sometimes 
ascribed  to  supernatural  personages  —  the  Central  Australians 
refer  it  to  the  mythical  ancestors,  the  later  Jews  to  the  command 
of  the  national  deity  issued  to  the  legendary  or  mythical  ancestor 
Abram.2  Under  certain  circumstances  it  might  become  a  tribal 
mark ;  the  Hebrews  thus  distinguished  themselves  from  their 
neighbors  the  Philistines,  and  "uncircumcised"  was  a  term  of 
reproach.3 

166.  Apart  from  its  use  in  initiation  the  cultic  role  of  circum- 
cision has  been  small.  It  does  not  appear  as  an  element  in  the 
worship  of  any  deity,  neither  in  that  of  such  gods  as  Osiris,  Tam- 
muz,  Adonis,  Attis,  nor  in  that  of  any  other.  It  is  not  represented 
in  ancient  records  as  a  devotion  of  one's  self  or  an  assimilation 
of  one's  self  or  of  a  child  to  the  tribal  or  national  god.  Its  per- 
formance is  generally  a  religious  duty,  as  is  true  of  every  estab- 
lished custom,  but  this  fact  throws  no  light  on  its  origin.  The 
prepuce  is  sometimes  treated  as  an  amulet  or  in  general  as  a  magi- 
cally powerful  or  sacred  thing ;  but  many  other  parts  of  the  body 
(hair,  ringer  nails,  etc.)  are  so  treated. 

167.  In  the  higher  religions  circumcision  is  generally  viewed  as 
an  act  of  physical  purification  or  as  a  symbol  of  moral  purification. 
The  former  view,  perhaps,  prevailed  in  Egypt,  though  on  this 
point  the  records  appear  to  be  silent.4  The  latter  view  is  that  of 
the  Old  Testament  prophets  and  the  New  Testament.5     It  has 

1  Cf.  the  defloration  of  young  women  (by  certain  officially  appointed  men)  on  the 
occasion  of  their  arriving  at  the  age  of  puberty;  Rivers,  The  Todas,  p.  505  ;  Spencer 
and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  93  ;  Crawley,  The  Mystic  Rose.  p.  347. 

2  Gen.  xvii.  Islam  has  no  divine  sanction  for  circumcision  ;  it  is  not  mentioned 
in  the  Koran,  doubtless  because  Mohammed  took  it  for  granted  as  a  current  usage. 

3  1  Sam.  xvii,  26. 

4  Article  "-  Circumcision  (Egyptian)  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics,  and  the  literature  there  cited.  5  Deut.  x,  16  ;  Jer.  ix,  25  f. ;  Rom.  ii,  28  f. 


74       IXTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

now  ceased  to  have  any  effective  religious  significance,  and  is  re- 
tained in  some  communities  merely  as  a  national  social  tradition 
or  as  an  ancient  divine  ordinance. 

168.  The  origin  of  circumcision  suggested  above  seems  to  ac- 
count sufficiently  for  all  usages  and  ideas  connected  with  it ;  the 
possibility  of  several  different  origins  need  not  be  denied,  but 
the  practical  identity  of  the  customs  in  all  parts  of  the  world  in 
which  the  institution  exists,  makes  the  simpler  hypothesis  the 
more  probable. 

169.  Certain  features  of  ceremonies  of  initiation  appear  to  be 
designed  to  secure  union  between  the  initiate  and  the  clan.  Such, 
for  example,  is  the  custom  found  in  New  South  Wales  of  the 
initiate's  drinking  the  blood  of  his  companions.  In  other  cases  there 
is  a  union  with  other  parts  of  the  body.  Such  usages  arise  from  the 
idea  that  physical  union  is  essential  to  social  union  —  a  conception 
which  elsewhere  takes  the  form  of  blood-brotherhood.1  This  is  a 
scientific  rather  than  a  religious  idea,  depending  on  the  belief  that 
the  body  is  an  essential  part  of  the  personality.2 

170.  Another  noteworthy  custom  is  the  feigned  resurrection  of  the 
initiate.  In  Australia  the  women  are  informed  that  the  youth  during 
the  process  of  initiation  is  slain  by  a  supernatural  being  and  brought 
to  life  again.  Elsewhere  the  initiate  is  supposed  to  forget  his  former 
life  completely  and  to  be  obliged,  on  emerging  from  the  ceremony, 
to  recover  slowly  his  knowledge  of  things.3  The  origin  of  this  custom 
is  obscure,  but  it  appears  to  express  the  idea  that  the  youth  now 
enters  on  an  entirely  new  life,  and  having  come  into  new  relations 
and  responsibilities,  is  to  forget  what  he  was  and  what  he  did 
before  —  a  profound  conception  which  has  been  taken  up  into  some 
of  the  most  advanced  religions  (as,  for  example,  in  baptism  and 
confirmation). 

171.  In  certain  half-civilized  tribes  a  higher  type  of  initiatory 
ceremonies  is  found.    The  youth  must  perform  a  lonely  vigil,  going 

i  Article  «  Brotherhood  (artificial)"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  Cf.  H.  C.  Trumbull,  The  Blood-Covenant,  passim  ;  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the 
Semites,  new  ed.,  Index,  s.v.  Blood  Covenant. 

3  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  iii,  422  ff .  ;  cf.  Gatschet,  Migration  Legend  of  the 
Creeks,  p.  185  f. 


EA  RL  J r  K  ELI  CIO  US  CEREMONIES  7  5 

into  the  forest  or  some  other  solitary  place,  and  there  wait  for  the 
vision  or  revelation  of  a  supernatural  protector.1  This  procedure 
is  connected  with  the  advance  of  individualism,  the  old  totemic  or 
other  relation  being  superseded  by  an  individual  relation  to  a 
guardian  spirit.  The  development  of  this  higher  religious  conception 
will  be  discussed  below.2 

172.  Finally,  instruction  forms  a  part  of  most  initiation  cere- 
monies. The  youth  is  told  the  secrets  of  the  tribe,  and  is  thus 
inducted  into  its  higher  and  more  intimate  life.3  This  confiding  of 
tribal  secrets  (the  tradition  and  the  knowledge  of  sacred  things)  to 
the  young  man  about  to  enter  on  public  life  is  a  political  necessity, 
but  in  the  nature  of  the  case  connects  itself  with  religious  concep- 
tions. Generally,  also,  moral  instruction  is  given.4  The  ethical  code 
is  usually  good  so  far  as  intratribal  relations  are  concerned  (foreign- 
ers are  not  considered):  the  youth  is  told  that  he  must  obey  his  elders, 
respect  the  rights  of  his  fellow  clansmen,  and  especially  be  careful 
in  his  attitude  toward  women.  In  some  cases  a  supernatural  sanction 
for  such  instructions  is  added  ;  it  is  impressed  on  the  youth  that 
some  supernatural  being  will  punish  him  if  he  disobeys  these  instruc- 
tions. The  moral  code  in  question  is  one  which  springs  naturally 
and  necessarily  from  the  relations  of  men  in  society,  and  the  super- 
natural sanction  affixed  to  it  is  a  consequence  of  the  belief  that  the 
tribal  deity  is  the  lord  of  the  tribe  and  the  natural  and  most  effec- 
tive guardian  of  its  rights. 

173.  From  this  brief  statement  of  initiation  ceremonies  it  appears 
that  they  rest  substantially  on  social  ideas  and  necessities.  Religion 
enters  into  them,  as  is  pointed  out  above,  when  a  superhuman  being 
is  represented  as'  the  patron  of  the  clan  and  the  protector  of  its 
ceremonies,  or  when  the  moral  teaching  is  referred  to  such  a  being, 
or  when  the  initiate  seeks  a  supernatural  patron  with  whom  to  en- 
ter into  relations,  or  when,  as  in  some  North  Australian  tribes,  the 

1  Alice  Fletcher,  Indian  Ceremonies,  p.  278.  2  §§  533,  1095  ^->  ij6i  ff- 

3 Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xxv,  295    (South   Australia);    Ilowitt, 

Native  Tribes  of  South- East  .Australia,  p.  531  f. 

4  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xiii,  296  (Queensland)  ;  Howitt,  loc.  cit. ; 

Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  pp.  221,  223,  and  Native  Tribes 

of  Northern  Australia,  p.  361. 


76       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

supernatural  being  is  believed  to  be  angry  at  the  omission  of  the 
ceremonies.  This  last  case  might  recall  the  displeasure  of  the  Greek 
gods  when  sacrifices  to  them  were  withheld  or  diminished  ;  but  more 
probably  it  involves  simply  the  belief  that  all  important  ceremonies 
and  affairs  are  under  the  control  of  the  being  in  question,  who  de- 
mands obedience  to  him  as  lord. 

174.  In  later  stages  of  savage  or  semicivilized  life  the  clan  con- 
stitution as  a  rule  has  been  succeeded  by  the  formation  of  secret 
societies,  and  then  initiation  into  a  society  takes  the  place  of  the  old 
initiation  into  the  clan.1  Initiation  into  such  a  society  is  often  elabo- 
rate and  solemn  —  it  is  carried  out  in  great  detail  in  many  Polynesian, 
African,  and  North  American  tribes  —  but  its  general  features  are 
the  same  as  those  of  the  earlier  procedure.  Savage  societies  and 
civilized  mysteries  all  have  their  secrets  and  their  moral  instruction, 
and  they  all  represent  an  advance  in  individualism.  Still  later  the 
church  takes  the  place  of  the  mysteries,  and  here  the  process  of 
initiation,  though  more  refined,  is  still  in  essence  identical  with  the 
earlier  forms.2  Naturally  in  the  increasing  refinement  of  the  cere- 
monies there  is  an  increasing  prominence  of  the  supernatural  ele- 
ment, for  the  reason  that  the  special  care  of  religion  recedes  more 
and  more  from  general  society  (which  tends  to  occupy  itself  with 
civil  and  political  questions  solely),  and  is  intrusted  to  special 
voluntary  organizations. 


Marriage  Ceremonies 

175.  Marriage  is  so  important  a  fact  for  the  communal  life  that 
it  has  always  been  regulated  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  by  the 
community,  which  defines  its  methods,  rights,  and  obligations.3 

1  H.  Webster,  Primitive  Secret -Societies,  chap,  ii  ft. 

2  The  office  of  sponsor  exists  in  embryonic  form  in  many  savage  communities  ; 
for  boys  the  sponsor  is  the  father  or  other  near  relation,  for  girls  an  old  woman.  The 
duties  of  savage  sponsors  usually  continue  only  during  the  period  of  initiation. 

3  Westermarck,  Human  Marriage;  H.  N.  Hutchinson,  Marriage  Customs  in 
Many  Lands:  Ch.  Letourneau,  The  Evolution  of  Marriage  and  of  the  Family. 
Crawley,  The  Mystic  Rose  ;  and  the  references  in  G.  E.  Howard's  History  of  Matri- 
monial Institutions,  i,  chaps,  i-iv  ;  cf.  Hartland,  Primitive  Paternity. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  7 7 

176.  In  the  lowest  known  tribes  the  ceremony  of  marriage  is 
simple :  the  woman  is  given  to  the  man  by  the  constituted  author- 
ities —  that  is,  the  relatives  of  the  parties  and  the  elders  of  the 
clan  or  tribe  —  and  by  that  act  the  two  become  husband  and  wife. 
At  this  stage  of  social  growth  the  stress  is  laid  on  preparation  for 
marriage  in  the  ceremonies  of  puberty  and  initiation.  The  members 
of  the  tribe  being  thus  prepared  for  union,  marriage  is  merely  the 
assignment  of  a  given  woman  to  a  given  man.  The  wife  is  selected 
according  to  established  custom  ;  that  is,  in  accordance  with  custom- 
ary law,  which  in  most  cases  defines  precisely  from  what  group  of 
the  tribe  the  woman  proper  to  a  given  man  shall  be  taken. 

177.  Though  the  origin  of  this  law  goes  back  to  a  remote  an- 
tiquity and  is  involved  in  obscurity,  it  seems  to  have  been  origi- 
nally simply  a  matter  of  social  agreement.  It  came  to  be,  however, 
connected  with  systems  of  totemism  and  taboo,  and  thus  to  have 
acquired  a  certain  religious  character ;  and,  as  being  important  for 
the  tribal  life,  it  would  come  under  the  control  of  the  tribal  god  when 
there  is  such  a  god.  A  similar  remark  may  be  made  in  regard 
to  exogamy.  Why  marriage  between  members  of  the  same  tribe, 
clan,  or  phratry  should  be  prohibited  is  not  clear.1  The  rule  arose, 
doubtless,  from  some  social  feature  of  ancient  society,  and  only 
later  was  involved  in  the  general  religious  atmosphere.2 

178.  Gradually  greater  freedom  of  choice  was  allowed  men  and 
women,  and  the  ceremonies  of  marriage  became  more  elaborate. 
Certain  of  these  seem  intended  to  secure  the  complete  union  of 
husband  and  wife ;  such,  for  example,  are  the  customs  of  eating 
together,  of  the  inoculation  of  each  party  with  the  blood  of  the 
other  or  with  some  bodily  part  of  the  other,  and  the  giving  of 

1  See  below,  §  429  ff . 

2  Similar  restrictions  existed  in  Greece  and  Rome.  An  Athenian  citizen  was  not 
allowed  to  marry  a  foreign  woman.  In  Rome  connubium  held  in  the  first  instance 
between  men  and  women  who  were  citizens,  though  it  might  be  extended  to  include 
Latins  and  foreigners.  In  India  marriage  came  to  be  controlled  by  caste.  These 
local  and  national  rules  gradually  yielded  to  rules  based  on  degrees  of  consanguinity. 
Marriage  between  near  relations  was  looked  on  with  disfavor  in  Greece  and  Rome 
and  by  the  Hebrews,  and  the  Old  Testament  law  on  this  point  has  been  adopted 
(with  some  variations)  by  Christian  nations.  For  the  Arab  customs  see  W.  R.  Smith, 
Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia,  chap.  iii. 


78       JXTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIOXS 

presents  by  each  to  the  other.  All  these  rest  on  the  conception 
that  union  between  two  persons  is  effected  by  each  taking  some- 
thing that  belongs  to  the  other ;  each  thus  acquires  something  of 
the  other's  personality.  This  is  a  scientific  biological  idea ;  and 
though  it  had  its  origin  doubtless  in  some  very  crude  notion  of  life,  it 
has  maintained  itself  in  one  form  or  another  up  to  the  present  time. 

179.  Among  many  communities  the  custom  is  for  the  bride 
to  hide  herself  and  to  be  pursued  and  taken  by  the  bridegroom. 
This  custom,  again,  is  in  its  origin  obscure.  Almost  certainly  it  does 
not  point  to  original  marriage  by  capture,  for  of  such  a  customary 
method  of  acquiring  wives  there  is  no  trace  in  savage  communities 
(though  in  particular  cases  women  may  have  been  captured  and 
married).  Possibly  it  reflects  merely  the  coyness  of  the  woman ; 
or  it  may  be  simply  a  festive  procedure,  an  occasion  of  fun  for  the 
young  people,  as  indeed  a  wedding  now  commonly  is.  In  many 
cases,  however,  it  appears  to  represent  the  transference  of  the  woman 
from  her  owrn  tribe  to  that  of  her  husband.  Though  she  was  thus 
transferred  bodily  and  brought  into  civic  relations  with  the  latter, 
certain  taboos,  arising  from  her  original  tribal  position,  often  clung 
to  her.  The  right  to  dwell  in  her  own  house  in  her  own  tribe,  and 
to  receive  there  her  foreign  husband,  belongs  to  a  relatively  late 
social  stage.1 

180.  The  defloration  of  the  woman  before  marriage  is  rather  a 
preparation  for  marriage  than  a  marriage  ceremony  ;  or  it  may  rep- 
resent the  social  right  of  the  elders  of  the  tribe  and  the  relatives 
of  the  bride  to  the  possession  of  her,  perhaps  symbolizing  her  en- 
trance into  a  family.2  The  hypothesis  that  such  a  custom  points  to 
primitive  promiscuity  is  ably  combated  by  Westermarck,  and  is  in- 
volved in  great  difficulties ;  it  is,  however,  maintained  by  Messrs. 
Spencer  and  Gillen  in  their  two  works  on  Australian  tribes,  whose 
customs  seem  to  them  to  be  inexplicable  except  on  the  supposition 

1  Cf.  Crawley,  The  Mystic  Rose,  p.  462  ff . ;  W.  R.  Smith,  Kinship  and  Marriage 
in  Early  Arabia,  1st  ed.,  p.  62  ff.  ;  Hartland,  Primitive  Paternity,  chaps,  v,  vi. 

2  In  some  cases,  among  the  Todas  of  South  India  for  example,  the  defloration 
takes  place  shortly  before  the  girl  reaches  the  age  of  puberty  (Rivers,  The  Todas, 
p.  703)  ;  more  generally  it  is  performed  when  she  reaches  this  age.  This  difference 
of  time  is  not  essential  as  regards  the  significance  of  the  ceremony. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  79 

of  primitive  promiscuity,  in  spite  of  Westermarck's  arguments  ;  and 
in  support  of  this  view  the  sexual  license  granted  in  many  tribes 
to  unmarried  girls  may  be  adduced.  However  this  may  be,  the 
custom  in  question  appears  to  be  civil  and  not  religious.  The  same 
thing  is  true  of  the  ceremonies  in  which  bridegroom  and  bride  are 
hailed  as  king  and  queen  —  a  very  natural  form  of  merrymaking.1 
The  purchase  of  wives  is  probably  a  simple  commercial  act. 

181.  The  marriage  ceremonies  mentioned  above  appear  to  be  all 
social  in  their  nature.  Into  them  the  supernatural  is  introduced  in 
proportion  as  the  conception  of  a  divine  control  of  society  obtains.2 
On  the  other  hand,  those  customs  which  are  intended  to  ward  off 
evil  spirits  or  general  evil  influences  from  the  married  pair  are 
religious  or  magical. 

182.  Mr.  Crawley3  holds  that  all  marriage  ceremonies  are  essen- 
tially religious,  as  involving  the  conception  of  something  strange 
and  dangerous  in  the  contact  of  men  and  women ;  they  are  in- 
tended, he  thinks,  to  neutralize  dangers  by  reversing  taboos  and  by 
assimilating  the  two  persons  each  to  the  other,  the  dangers  in  ques- 
tion being  not  merely  distinctly  sexual  but  those  of  contact  in  gen- 
eral. Though  he  carries  his  application  of  the  principle  of  taboo 
too  far,  he  has  collected  a  large  number  of  examples  which  illus- 
trate the  separation  between  the  sexes  in  early  society,  and  the 
taboos  which  hold  in  their  social  intercourse.  The  separation  of 
the  sexes  in  early  times  seems  to  have  resulted  largely  from  the 
difference  in  their  occupations  and  the  consequent  isolation  of  each 
from  the  other.  Possibly  one  result  of  this  isolation  was  that  each 
saw  something  strange  and  wonderful  in  the  other ;  but  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  taboo  laws  were  made  by  men  and  are  there- 
fore directed  particularly  against  women.  The  belief  in  the  sacred- 
ness  of  life  would  act  more  particularly  on  the  ideas  concerning  birth. 

1  Cf.  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  i,  224.  For  the  Old  Testament  Song  of  Songs 
see  Budde's  commentary  on  that  book. 

2  Sacrifices  to  local  or  other  deities  formed  a  part  of  marriage  ceremonies  in 
Greece  and  Rome  ;  Hera  and  Juno  were  guardians  of  the  sanctity  of  marriage.  No 
religious  ceremony  in  connection  with  marriage  is  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament ; 
a  trace  of  such  a  ceremony  occurs  in  the  book  of  Tobit  (vii,  13). 

3  The  Mystic  Rose,  p.  322,  etc. 


8o      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

183.  Among  many  half-civilized  peoples  and  generally  in  Chris- 
tian communities  marriage  is  regarded  both  as  a  religious  ceremony 
and  as  a  civil  contract,  and  is  controlled  in  the  one  case  by  the  re- 
ligious authorities,  in  the  other  case  by  the  civil  authorities.  In 
Mohammedan  communities  marriage  is  simply  a  civil  contract,  but 
religious  ceremonies  are  often  connected  with  it.1 

Ceremonies  at  Birth 

184.  It  is  possible  that  early  man  was  so  impressed  by  the  fact 
of  life  and  the  wonderfulness  of  the  birth  of  a  human  being  that  he 
included  this  latter  fact  in  the  sphere  of  the  supernatural,  and  that 
the  taboos  connected  with  it  arose  from  his  dread  of  supernatural, 
dangerous  influence.2  Many  of  the  ceremonies  connected  with  the 
birth  of  a  child  may  be  explained  easily  as  resulting  from  the  nat- 
ural care  for  mother  and  child.  Both  of  these  are,  in  the  modern 
sense  of  the  term,  sacred ;  and  even  in  very  early  times  ordinary 
humane  feeling  would  seek  to  protect  them  from  injury.3 

185.  Thus  the  curious  custom  of  the  couvade,4  in  which  the  hus- 
band, and  not  the  wife,  goes  to  bed  on  the  birth  of  the  child,  may 
be  an  effort  on  the  man's  part  to  share  in  the  labor  of  the  occasion, 
since  he  has  to  take  care  of  the  child ;  or  it  may  be  primarily  an 
economical  procedure  —  the  woman  must  go  out  to  work  and  the 
man  must  therefore  stay  at  home  to  take  care  of  the  house  and 
the  child.  But  probably  something  more  than  this  is  involved  — 
there  seems  to  be  fear  of  supernatural  danger.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  suppose  that  the  man  takes  the  woman's  place  in  order  to  attract 
to  himself  the  malevolent  spirits  that  figure  on  such  occasions  ;  but 
the  belief  in  the  intimate  vital  connection  between  father  and  child 
may  induce  the  desire  to  guard  the  former  against  injury.  Similar 
precautions  are  taken  in  regard  to  the  mother  ;5  some  of  these  have 

1  Hughes,  Dictionary  of  Islam,  article  "  Marriage." 

2  The  danger  might  continue  into  early  childhood  and  have  to  be  guarded  against ; 
for  a  Greek  instance  see  Gardner  and  Jevons,  Greek  Antiquities,  p.  299. 

3  For  details  see  Ploss,  Das  Kind,  and  works  on  antiquities,  Hebrew,  Greek,  and 
Roman.  4  Cf.  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  i,  72  ff.;  iv,  244  ff. 

5  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  228  ff.,  and  The  Shasta,  p.  453  ff. ;  Rivers,  The 
Todas,  p.  313  ff. ;  Hollis,  The  Nandi,  p.  64  f. ;  D.  Kidd,  Savage  Childhood,  p.  7  ;  Lev. 
xii;  article  "Birth"  in  Hastings",  lEncyclofxzdia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


EARL  \ '  RELIGK  U  rS  CEREMi  WIES  8 1 

a  natural  basis  in  her  physical  condition  which  necessitates  a  certain 
carefulness.  Where  such  customs  connected  with  birth  prevail,  de- 
parture from  them  is  thought  to  be  dangerous  or  fatal ;  but  such 
a  feeling  exists  in  regard  to  all  social  customs. 

186.  The  belief  that  the  newborn  child  is  the  reincarnation  of 
an  ancestor  is  scientific  rather  than  religious.  In  Central  Australia 
every  child  is  held  to  be  the  reincarnation  of  a  spirit  ancestor ;  a 
similar  idea  is  found  in  North  America,  in  Western  Africa,  and  in 
Orissa.1  In  searching  for  the  cause  of  birth  it  is  not  unnatural  that 
it  should  be  ascribed  to  a  preexistent  being  who  desires  to  enter 
again  into  human  life.2 

187.  The  ablutions  or  sprinklings  of  water  practiced  in  some 
places  appear  to  be  merely  the  expression  of  welcome  into  the 
community.3  The  choice  of  a  name  for  the  child  is  frequently 
connected  with  religious  ideas.  Among  many  tribes  the  custom 
is  to  seek  for  some  hint  from  the  child  itself,  as  by  repeating  a 
number  of  names  and  observing  which  of  them  the  child  seems 
to  recognize  or  accept.  The  help  of  a  deity  is  sometimes  invoked, 
as  in  Borneo,  where  a  pig  is  killed  and  its  spirit  thus  sent  as  mes- 
senger to  a  particular  god,  who  is  asked  to  approve.4  In  Samoa  a 
tutelary  spirit  is  sometimes  chosen  for  the  infant ; 5  during  child- 
hood the  child  bears  the  name  of  a  god,  who  seems  to  be  regarded 
as  its  protector.  The  identification  of  person  and  name,  common 
among  savages,  is  also  scientific  rather  than  religious.  At  the 
entrance  into  a  secret  society  the  novitiate  may  receive  a  new 
name.6  The  adoption  of  a  child's  name  by  the  father  (teknonymy) 
may  be  simply  the  expression  of  paternal  pride,  or  possibly  it  is 

1  See  above,  §  5  5  f . 

2  Tylor  {Primitive  Culture,  ii,  3  ff.)  suggests  that  such  an  idea  may  have  been  sup- 
posed to  account  for  the  general  resemblance  between  parents  and  children. 

3  R.  H.  Nassau,  Fettchtsm  in  11  est  Africa,  p.  212. 

4  Iladdon,  Head-Imnters,  p.  353  ff. 

5  Turner,  Samoa,  chap.  iii.  In  some  Christian  communities  the  saint  on  whose 
festival  day  a  child  is  born  is  adopted  as  the  child's  patron  saint.  In  the  higher  an- 
cient religions  there  were  religious  observances  in  connection  with  the  birth  and 
rearing  of  children,  special  divine  care  being  sought ;  see,  for  example,  the  elaborate 
Roman  apparatus  of  divine  guardians. 

6  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  231  ;  H.  Webster,  Primitive  Secret  Societies, 
p.  40  f. 


82       IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  expression  of  the  father's  protection  or  of  his  identification  with 
the  child.  The  adoption  of  a  secret  name  that  involves  the  man's 
personality  and  is  therefore  to  be  withheld  from  enemies  belongs 
to  adult  life. 

188.  The  taboos  imposed  on  the  mother  during  pregnancy  and 
after  the  birth  of  the  child,  often  numerous  and  oppressive,  are 
derived  from  local  conditions,  and  are  generally  regulated  by  re- 
ligion. With  the  growth  of  refinement  they  tend  to  disappear,  while 
the  attendant  ceremonies  take  on  a  moral  and  spiritual  character, 
culminating,  in  the  great  religions,  in  the  conception  that  the  babe, 
as  a  child  of  God,  is  to  be  taken  into  the  religious  fellowship  of  the 
community  and  trained  for  a  good  life. 

Burial  Ceremonies1 

189.  Among  savage  peoples  grief  for  the  dead  expresses  itself 
in  a  variety  of  violent  ceremonies  of  mourning,  such  as  wailing,  and 
cutting  and  gashing  the  body.  These  are  partly  expressions  of  nat- 
ural sorrow,2  but  may  be  intended  in  part  to  propitiate  the  dead, 
who  thus  sees  that  honor  is  paid  him. 

190.  The  belief  that  the  dead  person  is  powerful  expresses  itself 
in  the  care  with  which  the  grave  is  guarded,  it  being  held  that 
injury  to  the  grave  is  an  injury  to  the  dead,  and  likely,  therefore, 
to  excite  his  anger.  Further,  savage  science  as  a  rule  does  not 
recognize  natural  causes  of  death.  It  regards  death  as  murder, 
and  there  is  accordingly  search  for  the  murderer,  often  by  pro- 
tracted ceremonies  with  the  aid  of  a  magician.  The  well-being  of 
the  dead  man  is  provided  for  by  placing  food  and  drink,  utensils 
and  weapons  in  his  grave,  that  he  may  have  the  means  of  enjoy- 
ment in  the  other  world.3  To  assure  him  proper  service  his  wives 
and  slaves  are  sometimes  slain,  that  their  souls  may  accompany  his  ; 

1  For  methods  of  burial  see  article  "  Funerailles  "  in  La  Grande  Encyclopedic. 

2  Robertson,  The  Kafirs,  chap,  xxxiii ;  Batchelor,  The  Ainu,  chap,  xlviii  (the  god- 
dess of  fire  is  asked  to  take  charge  of  the  spirit  of  the  deceased). 

i  The  food  and  drink  (of  which  only  the  soul  is  supposed  to  be  consumed  by  the 
deceased)  are  often  utilized  by  the  surviving  friends  ;  such  funeral  feasts  have  played 
a  considerable  part  in  religious  history  and  survive  in  some  quarters  to  the  present  day. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  83 

but  this  custom  is  not  found  among  the  lowest  tribes  —  it  belongs 
to  a  relatively  advanced  conception  of  the  other  life.1  In  many 
cases  blood  is  sprinkled  on  the  ground  near  the  grave  of  the  corpse, 
as  in  Borneo  (the  blood  of  a  fowl)  ; 2  the  blood  may  be  meant  to 
be  food  for  the  dead,  or  its  supernatural  power  may  be  supposed 
to  guard  against  injury  from  him  to  the  living. 

191.  A  ban  of  silence  is  often  imposed  —  the  name  of  the  dead 
person  is  not  to  be  mentioned  except  by  certain  privileged  men  ; 3 
among  certain  North  American  tribes  on  the  death  of  a  child  there 
is  a  ban  of  silence  on  the  father.4  The  reason  for  this  prohibition 
of  the  dead  person's  name  is  not  certain.  It  may  be  respect  for 
him,  or  it  may  be  merely  an  expression  of  sorrow  at  his  loss.  More 
probably,  however,  it  comes  from  the  belief  that  the  dead  man  is 
powerful  and  may  be  hurtful,  and  that  therefore  his  name,  which 
is  identical  with  himself,  is  dangerous.5 

192.  In  the  cases  mentioned  above,  the  dead  person  is  generally 
regarded  as  dangerous  —  to  be  feared  and  appeased.  Among  some 
tribes,  indeed,  precautions  are  taken  to  prevent  his  coming  back  to 
his  house.  Very  generally  the  presence  of  the  corpse  is  held  to 
cause  a  certain  pollution.6  There  is,  however,  another  side  to  the 
attitude  toward  the  dead.  As  he  is  regarded  as  powerful,  parts  of 
his  body  are  preserved  as  amulets ;  wives  wear  parts  of  the  bones 
of  the  dead  husband,  and  the  skulls  of  the  deceased  are  supposed 
to  be  especially  powerful,  in  some  cases  to  give  oracular  responses.7 

193.  In  general,  early  burial  ceremonies  appear  to  be  designed 
to  assure  the  comfort  of  the  deceased  in  the  other  world  with  a 
view  to  securing  his  friendship  and  aid  for  the  members  of  his 

1  A.  B.  Ellis,  77/,?  Ewe  (Dahomi),  chap,  viii ;  A.  G.  Leonard,  The  Lower  Niger 
and  its  Tribes,  p.  160  f. ;  Herodotus,  iv,  71  f.  (Scythians)  ;  v,  5  (Thracians).  Cf.  the 
Greek  Anthesteria  and  the  Roman  Parentalia. 

2  Journal  of  the  Antliropological  Institute,  xxi,  121. 

3  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Centra/  Australia,  p.  498. 

4  For  elaborate  Sioux  ceremonies  on  the  death  of  a  child  see  Miss  Fletcher, 
Indian  Ceremonies  (the  Shadow  or  Ghost  Lodge). 

5  On  the  disposal  of  the  corpse,  by  inhumation,  cremation,  exposure,  etc.,  see  arti- 
cle "  Funerailles"  cited  above  ;  O.  Schrader,  in  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion 
and  Ethics,  ii,  16  ff.  c  This  may  be  in  part  a  hygienic  precaution. 

"  Haddon,  HcadJiuuteis,  p.  91.  Cf.  G.  L.  Kittredge,  "Disenchantment  by  De- 
capitation," in  Journal  of  American  Folklore,  vol.  xviii,  no.  68  (January,  1905). 


84       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

family  and  clan  in  this  life.  As  he  is  of  the  nature  of  a  divine 
person,  the  ceremonies  in  question  are  naturally  religious.  Socially 
they  are  effective  in  binding  the  members  of  a  community  together 

—  a  large  sense  of  solidarity  is  produced  by  the  communal  recog- 
nition of  kinship  with  the  dead.  Special  stress  is  laid  on  this  con- 
ception in  China.1 

Ceremonies  of  Purification  and  Consecration2 

194.  The  essence  of  religion  is  a  helpful  relation  to  the  super- 
natural, but  in  early  stages  of  culture  man  frequently  finds  himself 
exposed  to  conditions,  either  resident  in  himself  or  induced  from 
without,  that  destroy  this  relation  and  disqualify  him  for  the  per- 
formance of  sacred  acts.  The  result  is  a  state  of  ritual  impurity 
or  uncleanness,  conceived  of  at  first  as  purely  physical,  but  tending 
to  become  gradually  moralized.  The  removal  of  the  disqualification 
constitutes  purification ;  the  positive  preparation  for  the  perform- 
ance of  a  sacred  act  constitutes  consecration ;  the  two  procedures 
represent  two  sides  of  the  same  idea,  and  they  are  related  in  a 
general  way  to  ceremonies  of  initiation  and  atonement. 

195.  The  occasions  for  purification  are  numerous,  including  all 
contacts  or  possibilities  of  contact  with  dangerous  (sacred)  things, 
and  thus  often  coinciding  with  taboo  conceptions.3  All  acts  con- 
nected with  procreation  and  birth ;  contact  with  a  corpse,  or  with 
a  sacred  person  or  thing,  or  with  an  object  belonging  to  a  sacred 
person  ;  return  from  a  journey  (in  the  course  of  which  the  traveler 
may  have  been  exposed  to  some  injurious  supernatural  influence)  4 

—  such  things  as  these  call  for  cleansing.  Inanimate  objects  also, 
especially  such  as  are  connected  with  religious  worship  (altars, 
vessels,  and  instruments),  require  purification ;  these  are  thought 
of  originally  as  having  souls,  and  as  incurring  defilement  by  the 
transmission  of  neighboring  impurities.    A  moral  conception  may 

1  De  Groot,  Religion  of  the  Chinese,  chap.  iii. 

2  Cf.  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  chap,  xxxvii  ff. ; 
Saussaye,  Science  of  Religion  (Eng.  tr.),  chap,  xviii ;  and  the  references  given  in  these 
works.  3  See  below,  on  removal  of  taboos. 

4  Frazer,  Golden  Bongh,  2d  ed.,  i,  306  f. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  tS5 

seem  to  be  involved  in  the  requirement  of  purification  after  the 
committal  of  a  murder ;  certainly,  in  the  more  advanced  stages  of 
society,  the  feeling  in  this  case  is  moral,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether 
in  earlier  stages  anything  more  is  involved  than  the  recognition  of 
ritual  defilement  by  contact  with  blood  ;  homicide,  as  a  social  crime, 
is  dealt  with  by  the  civil  law,  and  is  generally  excluded  from  the 
benefits  of  acts  of  ritual  atonement,1  and  so  also  all  violations  of 
tribal  law. 

196.  The  religious  preparation  for  the  performance  of  a  sacred 
act  usually  concerns  official  persons  (see  below,  under  consecration, 
§  202),  but  sometimes  involves  the  purification  of  others.  The 
largest  act  of  purification  is  that  which  includes  a  whole  community 
or  people ; 2  the  social  mass  is  then  regarded  as  a  unit,  and  there  is 
no  reason,  according  to  early  thought,  why  such  a  mass  should  not, 
by  a  ceremony,  be  freed  from  all  ritual  disabilities,  the  idea  of  moral 
purification  being,  of  course,  absent  or  latent.  Finally,  ritual  puri- 
fication is  sometimes  a  preliminary  to  pleasing  and  influencing  the 
deity,  who,  as  the  most  sacred  and  most  dangerous  object,  must 
be  approached  with  the  greatest  precautions.3 

197.  The  various  methods  of  purification  may  be  included  under 
a  few  heads,  the  principal  of  which  are :  the  application  of  water 
(bathing,  sprinkling) ;  the  application  of  sand,  dung,  bark,  and 
similar  things ;  exposure  to  fire ;  incantation  and  sacrifice ;  and 
fasting.  In  all  these  cases  the  virtue  lies  either  in  a  sacred  thing 
or  act  that  has  the  quality  of  dissipating  the  mysterious  defilement 
present,  or  in  the  removal  or  avoidance  of  the  defiling  thing ;  it  is 
frequently  required  that  the  application  of  the  cleansing  substance 
be  made  by  a  sacred  person,  whose  character  adds  potency  to  the 
act.  The  use  of  water  for  ceremonial  purification  has  been,  and 
is,  practiced  all  over  the  world,  alike  by  savages  and  by  civilized 
peoples  : 4    the  newborn  child,   ritually  impure  by  reason  of  the 

1  Cf.  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  Index,  s.v. 
Homicide,  2  See  below,  §201  ;  cf.  the  Athenian  Anthesteria  and  Thargelia. 

'  3  In  Ex.  iv,  24  f.,  Yahweh  is  about  to  kill  Moses,  apparently  for  neglecting  a 
ritual  act. 

4  Examples  in  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  429  ff.  ;  cf.  Knox,  Religion  in  Japan, 
P-  39- 


86       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

mystery  of  birth,  is  bathed  or  sprinkled  ;  before  the  performance 
of  a  sacred  act  the  officiator  must  bathe  ; l  numerous  ablutions  are 
prescribed  in  the  Old  Testament ;  similar  usages  obtained  among 
the  Egyptians,  the  Hindus  and  the  Persians,  the  Greeks  and  the 
Romans,  the  Chinese  and  the  Japanese,  the  Mexicans  and  the 
Peruvians,  and  other  peoples. 

198.  These  usages  have  arisen  doubtless  from  observation  of 
the  natural  cleansing  power  of  water  and  other  things  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  belief  in  their  sacred  character.  Adopted  by  the 
nigher  religions  they  have  been  more  or  less  spiritualized  by  the 
infusion  into  them  of  ideas  of  penitence,  forgiveness  of  sin,  and 
regeneration  —  so  in  India,  Persia,  and  Peru.  Christian  baptism 
seems  to  have  come  from  Jewish  proselyte  baptism  : 2  the  proselyte 
was  by  immersion  in  water  symbolically  cleansed  from  sin  and  intro- 
duced into  a  new  religious  life,  and  such  was  the  significance  of 
the  rite  practiced  by  John,  though  his  surname  "  the  Baptizer " 
probably  indicates  that  he  gave  it  a  broader  and  deeper  meaning ; 
he  overstepped  national  bounds,  receiving  Jews  as  well  as  non- 
Jews.3  Moslem  ritual  requires  ablutions  before  the  stated  prayers 
and  at  certain  other  times;  every  mosque  has  its  tank  of  water 
for  the  convenience  of  worshipers. 

199.  Where  water  cannot  be  had,  usage  in  Islam  and  in  some 
forms  of  Christianity  permits  the  substitution  of  sand  or  dust  — 
both  thought  to  have  cleansing  power.  Similar  power  is  ascribed 
to  urine  and  dung  of  domestic  animals.4  Such  usages  may  originate 
in  a  belief  in  the  physical  cleansing  efficacy  of  those  substances 
(the  Toda  women  employ  dried  buffalo's  dung  in  household  clean- 
ing), or  they  may  be  supposed  to  derive  their  efficacy  from  the 
sacredness  of  the  animals.    The  Todas  also  make  much  use  of  a 

1  See  the  practices  described  by  Rivers,  in  The  Todas,  Index,  s.w.  Bathing, 
Purification. 

2  Schneckenburger,  Prosclytcntaufc ;  article  "Proselyten"  in  Herzog,  Rcal-Ency- 

klop'ddie. 

3  In  the  New  Testament  baptism  is  said  to  be  "for  the  remission  of  sins"  (Acts 
ii,  38),  and  is  called  "bath  of  regeneration"  (Tit.  iii,  5);  a  quasi-magical  power  is 
attributed  to  it  in  1  Cor.  xv,  29.  » 

4  For  the  Mazdean  use  of  urine  see  Vcndidad,  Fargard  v,  160  ;  xvi,  27,  etc. ;  for 
use  of  buffalo's  dung,  Rivers,  The  Todas,  pp.  32,  173  f.,  etc. 


EARL  \ '  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  87 

certain  bark  for  purification.1  The  origin  of  these  customs  is 
obscure ;  they  go  back  to  times  and  conditions  for  a  knowledge 
of  which  data  are  lacking  —  possibly  to  the  early  conception  of  the 
sacredness  of  all  natural  objects.2  It  is  less  difficult  to  explain  the 
belief  in  the  purifying  power  of  fire.  Its  splendor  and  utility  caused 
it  to  be  regarded  as  a  god  in  India  and  Persia,  and  if  it  was  also 
destructive,  it  often  consumed  hurtful  things.  It  was  sacred,  and 
might,  therefore,  be  a  remover  of  impurity.  Its  employment  for 
this  purpose  is,  however,  not  frequent ; 8  it  is  oftener  used  to  con- 
sume corpses  and  other  unclean  things. 

200.  In  the  more  developed  religious  rituals,  sacrifice  is  a  com- 
mon accompaniment  of  purifying  ceremonies,  the  object  being  to 
procure  the  forgiveness  of  the  deity  for  the  offense  held  to  be  in- 
volved in  the  impurity ;  the  conception  of  sin  in  such  cases  is 
sometimes  physical,  sometimes  moral,  and  the  ceremony  is  always 
nearly  allied  to  one  of  atonement.  In  the  Hebrew  ritual  a  human 
bodily  impurity  and  the  apparatus  of  the  temple  alike  require  a 
sin-offering.4  In  India  the  bath  of  purification  stood  in  close  rela- 
tion with  a  sacrifice.5  In  Greece  the  two  were  associated  in  the 
cults  of  Apollo  and  Dionysos  and  in  ordinary  worship  in  general.6 
Thus,  men  and  gods  take  part  in  the  process  of  freeing  the 
worshiper  from  the  impure  elements  of  life :  the  man  obeys  the 
law  of  the  ritual,  and  the  god  receives  him  into  association  with 
the  divine. 

201.  Ancient  examples  of  the  purification  of  a  whole  community 
are  the  Hebrew  ceremony  on  the  annual  day  of  atonement 7  (which 
is  called  in  the  text  a  purification),  and  the  Roman  Lupercalia.8 


1  Rivers,  op.  cit.,  p.  367. 

2  Compare,  however,  the  use  of  natural  pigments  for  decorative  and  religious  pur- 
poses ;  see  above,  §  1 1 5  ff . 

3  The  Toda  ceremony  of  burning  a  woman's  hand  in  the  fifth  month  of  preg- 
nancy, and  a  child's  hand  on  the  occasion  of  a  funeral  (Rivers,  The  To  das,  pp.  315, 
374),  may  be  purificatory,  but  this  is  not  clear ;  cf.  Frazer,  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropo- 
logical Institute,  xi.  *  Lev.  xv,  30;  xvi,  15  ff. 

5  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  196. 

6  Gruppe,  Griechische  Mythologie,  p.  8S8  ff. ;  Jevons,  Introduction  to  the  History 
of  Religion,  p.»375  ;  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  p.  1506°. 

7  Lev.  xvi.  8  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  Index,  s.v. 


88       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

An  elaborate  festival  of  this  sort  was  observed  every  year  by  the 
Creeks ; 1  it  lasted  eight  days,  included  various  cathartic  observ- 
ances, and  ended  in  a  physical  and  moral  reconstruction  of  the 
nation.  Among  the  Todas  a  similar  ceremony  for  the  purification 
of  a  village  exists.2 

202.  Ceremonies  of  consec7'ation  are  similar  to  those  of  purifi- 
cation, only  usually  more  formal  and  solemn.  Entrance  on  a  sacred 
function,  which  involves  special  direct  contact  with  a  deity,  requires 
special  preparation.  Even  before  a  simple  act  of  prayer  it  was  felt 
to  be  proper  to  cleanse  one's  person  ; 3  how  much  more  important 
was  bodily  cleansing  and  other  preparation  for  one  who  was 
chosen  by  the  community  to  represent  it  in  its  relations  with  the 
supernatural  Powers !  The  preparation  for  such  an  office  is  in 
earlier  times  ritual  and  external,  and  becomes  gradually  moral- 
ized. Magicians  must  submit  to  purificatory  restrictions,  and 
prove  their  fitness  by  various  deeds.4  Initiation  into  secret  soci- 
eties (whose  members  had  a  certain  official  character)  was,  and 
is,  often  elaborate.5  Priests  in  Egypt,  Babylonia  and  Assyria, 
Canaan,  India,  Greece  and  Rome,  were  subject  to  conditions  of 
purity,  always  physical  and  sometimes  moral,  that  secured  a  daily 
consecration. 

203.  Methods  of  initial  consecration  were,  probably,  of  the 
general  character  of  those  prescribed  in  the  Hebrew  ritual  law.6 
Authority  is  often  conferred  by  a  high  official,  whose  consecrating 
act  is  then  generally  regarded  as  essential.7  The  priest  becomes 
invested  with  a  quasi-divine  authority.  The  consecration  of  kings 
follows  the  same  general  lines  as  that  of  priests.  In  both  cases  the 
desire  is  to  have  some  visible  form  of  the  deity  whose  relations 
with  men  may  be  felt  to  be  direct. 

1  The  native  name  of  the  festival,  puskita  (busk),  is  said  to  mean  'a  fast,'  but 
the  ceremonies  are  largely  purificatory;  Gatschet,  Migration  Legend  of  the  Ciccks, 
p.  177  ft.  2  Rivers,  The  Todas,  p.  300  ff.  3  Odyssey,  iv,  750. 

4  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  ii,  352  ;  Dixon,  The 
Northern  Maidit,  p.  269  f. 

5  H.Webster,  Primitive  Secret  Societies,  chap,  ix;  G.  Brown,  Mclanesians  and 
Polynesians,  pp.  60-78. 

6  Lev.  viii ;  cf.  Copleston,  Buddhism,  chap,  xviii ;  Lippert.  Pricstcrthnm  (see  ref- 
erences in  the  headings  to  the  chapters).  "  So  in  some  Christian  bodies. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  89 

204.  No  purificatory  and  consecrative  usage  has  been  more 
widespread  than  fasting.1  It  is  found  throughout  religious  history 
in  the  lowest  tribes  and  in  the  most  highly  civilized  peoples,  has 
been  practiced  in  a  great  variety  of  circumstances,  and  has  been 
invested  with  a  special  sanctity  and  efficacy.  It  has  been  regarded 
as  necessary  before  partaking  of  sacred  food,  before  the  perform- 
ance of  a  sacred  ceremony,  after  a  death,  in  the  presence  of  a 
great  occurrence  (as  an  eclipse  or  a  thunderstorm,  regarded  as 
supernatural),  as  a  part  of  the  training  of  magicians,  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  the  search  after  a  guardian  spirit,  as  a  part  of  ceremonies 
in  honor  of  gods,  as  an  act  of  abstinence  in  connection  with  a 
calamity  (or  in  general  as  a  self-denial  proper  to  sinful  man  and 
pleasing  to  the  deity  as  an  act  of  humility),  and,  finally,  as  a  retire- 
ment from  fleshly  conditions  in  preparation  for  spiritual  exercises. 

205.  A  great  number  of  explanations  of  the  origin  of  the  custom 
have  been  proposed,  and  it  is  obvious  that  the  particular  usages 
come  from  somewhat  different  conceptions.  Apparently,  however, 
all  these  usages  of  purification  by  fasting  go  back  to  the  idea  that 
the  body,  which  is  identified  with  the  human  personality,  is  in  its 
ordinary  state  nonsacred 2  and  therefore  unfit  for  the  performance 
of  a  sacred  act,  and  that  it  is  rendered  especially  unfit  by  contact 
with  a  ritually  unclean  thing.  Ordinary  food,  nourishing  the  body 
and  becoming  a  part  of  it,  thus  maintains  it  in  its  nonsacred  char- 
acter. This  point  of  view  appears  in  the  practice  of  administer- 
ing a  purge  as  a  means  of  ceremonial  purification ;  the  Nandi, 
for  example,  give  a  purge  to  a  girl  before  her  circumcision,  and  in 
some  cases  to  any  one  who  has  touched  a  taboo  object.3 

206.  The  essence  of  fasting  is  the  avoiding  of  defiling  food  ;  this 
conception  may  be  traced  in  all  instances  of  the  practice,  though 
it  may  be  in  some  cases  reenforced  by  other  considerations,  and 
is  sometimes  spiritualized.    The  efficacy  of  sacred  food  would  be 

1  The  details  are  given  at  great  length  by  Westermarck,  op.  cit.,  chap,  xxxvii, 
with  references  to  authorities. 

2  It  is  by  nature  nonsacred,  and  so  remains  so  long  as  it  has  not  been  made  sacred 
by  the  special  ceremonies  that  abound  in  savage  communities.  We  have  here  the 
germ  of  the  dualistic  conception  of  man's  constitution  —  the  antagonism  between 
spirit  and  body.  3  Hollis,  The  Nandi%  pp.  58,  92. 


9o 


INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


destroyed  if  it  came  in  contact  with  common  food,  or  it  might 
itself  become  destructive.1  A  sacred  ceremony  demands  a  sacred 
performer,  one  who  has  not  taken  a  defiling  substance  into  his 
being.  Death  diffuses  defilement,  and  makes  the  food  in  the  house 
of  the  deceased  dangerous. 

207.  Other  ideas  may  here  come  in  :  abstinence  may  be  a  sign 
or  a  result  of  grief,  though  this  does  not  seem  likely  except  in  re- 
fined communities ;  or  its  ground  may  be  fear  of  eating  the  ghost, 
which  is  believed  to  be  hovering  about  the  dead  body  ;  "2  it  is  hardly 
"the  result  of  "  making  excessive  provision  for  the  dead."  3    Special 

communion  with  supernatural  Powers,  by  magicians  and  others 
(including  conditions  of  ecstasy),  requires  ritual  purity,  and  similar 
preparation  of  the  body  is  proper  when  it  is  desired  to  avert  the 
anger  of  a  deity  or  to  do  him  honor. 

208.  Once  established,  the  custom  has  maintained  itself  in  the 
higher  religions4  in  connection  with  more  or  less  definite  spiritual 
aims  and  with  other  exercises,  particularly  prayer.  The  dominant 
feeling  is  then  self-denial,  at  the  bottom  of  which  the  conviction 
appears  to  be  that  the  deity  demands  complete  subordination  in 
the  worshiper  and  is  displeased  when  he  asserts  himself.  This 
conviction,  which  is  a  fundamental  element  in  all  religious  thought, 
pertains  properly  only  to  inward  experience,  but  naturally  tends  to 
annex  nonspiritual  acts  of  self-abnegation  like  fasting.  As  a  moral 
discipline,  a  training  in  the  government  of  self  and  a  preparation 
for  enduring  times  of  real  privation,  fasting  is  regarded  by  many 
persons  as  valuable.  Its  power  to  isolate  the  man  from  the  world 
and  thus  minister  to  religious  communion  differs  in  different  per- 
sons. The  Islamic  fast  of  Ramadan  is  said  to  produce  irritability  and 
lead  to  quarrels.  In  general,  fasting  tends  to  induce  a  nonnatural 
condition  of  body  and  mind,  favorable  to  ecstatic  experiences,  and 
favorable  or  not,  as  the  case  may  be,  to  a  genuine  religious  life.5 

1  Cf.  the  danger  to  a  common  man  of  eating  a  chief's  food ;  see  Frazer,  Golden 
Bough,  2d  ed.,  i,  32 1  f . 

2  Frazer,  vr.  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xv,  94,  quoted  by  Westermarck. 

3  H.  Spencer,  Principles  of  Sociology,  i,  §  140. 

4  In  Christianity  in  connection  with  the  eucharistic  meal  and  other  observances. 
6  The  true  principle  is  stated  in  Isa.  lviii,  3  ff. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  91 

209.  As  with  other  religious  observances,  so  with  purificatory 
ceremonies  the  tendency  is  to  mass  and  organize  them  —  they  are 
made  to  occur  at  regular  times  and  under  fixed  conditions,  as  in 
the  Christian  Lent,  the  Moslem  Ramadan,  and  the  Creek  Busk. 
Such  arrangements  give  orderliness  to  outward  religious  life,  but  are 
likely  to  diminish  or  destroy  spontaneity  in  observances.  Ceremonies 
of  this  sort  have  great  vitality — they  are  handed  on  from  age  to  age, 
the  later  religion  adopting  and  modifying  and  reinterpreting  the 
forms  of  the  earlier.  In  such  cases  the  lower  conceptions  survive  in 
the  minds  of  the  masses,  and  are  moralized  by  the  more  spiritual  na- 
tures, and  their  influence  on  society  is  therefore  of  a  mixed  character. 

Ceremonies  connected  with  Seasons  and  Periods 

210.  Some  of  these  have  already  been  mentioned  under  "Eco- 
nomic Ceremonies."  We  may  here  take  a  general  survey  of  festi- 
vals the  times  of  whose  celebration  are  determined  by  the  divisions 
of  the  year,  and  thus  constitute  calendars.1  The  earliest  calendars 
appear  to  have  been  fixed  by  observation  of  the  times  when  it  was 
proper  to  gather  the  various  sorts  of  food  —  to  hunt  animals  and 
gather  grubs  and  plants  (as  in  Central  Australia),  or  this  or  that 
species  of  fish  (as  in  Hawaii).  The  year  was  thus  divided  accord- 
ing to  the  necessities  of  life  —  seasons  were  fixed  by  experience. 

211.  At  a  comparatively  early  period,  however,  the  phases  of 
the  moon  attracted  attention,  and  became  the  basis  of  calendars. 
Lunar  calendars  are  found  among  savage  and  half-civilized  tribes 
of  various  grades  of  culture  in  Polynesia,  Africa,  Asia,  and  the 
Americas,  and  were  retained  for  a  time  by  most  ancient  civilized 
peoples.  Later  observation  included  the  movements  of  the  sun ; 
it  is  only  among  advanced  peoples  that  festivals  are  connected  with 
equinoxes  and  solstices.  The  more  scientific  calendars  gradually 
absorbed  the  earlier,  and  it  is  probable  that  simple  ceremonies  that 
were  originally  neither  agricultural  nor  astral  were  taken  up  into 
the  later  systems  and  reinterpreted." 

1  Cf.  article  "Calendar"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  For  a  series  of  dance  seasons  see  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  283  ff. ;  cf. 
Basset,  in  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  ii,  513. 


92       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

212.  When,  from  observation  of  climatic  conditions  and  lunar 
changes,  a  general  division  of  the  year  came  to  be  made  into  spring, 
summer,  autumn,  and  winter,  or  several  similar  seasons  (sometimes 
with  intermediate  points),  festivals  gradually  arranged  themselves 
in  the  various  periods.  The  terms  designating  the  four  seasons 
are,  however,  somewhat  indefinite  in  regard  to  position  in  the 
year  and  duration,  varying  in  these  points  in  different  places,  and 
it  is  better,  in  considering  agricultural  ceremonies,  to  make  a  gen- 
eral division  into  times  of  planting  and  times  of  harvesting.  It  is 
not  certain  whether  lunar  or  agricultural  festivals  came  first  in  the 
development  of  public  religious  life,  but  as  (omitting  the  lowest 
tribes)  the  former  are  found  where  there  is  no  well-organized  agri- 
cultural system,  we  may  begin  with  them. 

213.  The  new  moon,  as  marking  the  beginning  of  the  month, 
and  other  phases  of  the  moon  are  frequently  accompanied  by  ob- 
servances of  a  more  or  less  definitely  religious  character,  with  great 
variety  of  detail  in  different  places.  The  Nandi  *  have  two  seasons 
(the  wet  and  the  dry)  and  twelve  months  named  from  meteorologi- 
cal phenomena,  and  each  day  in  the  month  receives  a  name  from 
the  attendant  phase  of  the  moon.  The  great  ceremonies  are  con- 
ducted in  the  period  of  the  waxing  of  the  moon,  and  its  waning  is 
an  occasion  of  mourning.  The  new  moon  is  greeted  with  a  prayer 
that  it  may  bring  blessing.  A  similar  custom  exists  among  the 
Masai.2  On  the  other  hand  the  Todas,  though  the  times  of  their 
festivals  are  all  regulated  by  the  moon,  appear  to  have  no  lunar 
ceremony  ; 3  if  there  was  ever  any  such  ceremony,  it  has  been  ab- 
sorbed by  the  buffalo  cult.  The  South  American  Arawaks  have  six 
ceremonies  in  the  year  that  seem  to  be  fixed  by  the  appearance  of 
the  new  moon.4  The  Hebrew  first  day  of  the  (lunar)  month  was 
observed  with  special  religious  ceremonies.5  The  full  moon,  the  last 
phase  of  growth,  is  less  prominent ;  where  it  marks  a  festival  day 
it  is  generally  in  connection  with  an  agricultural  event,  as  among 


1  Hollis,  The  Nandi,  p.  94  ff.  2  Hollis,  The  Masai,  Index,  s.v.  Moon. 

3  Rivers,  The  Todas,  Index,  s.v.  Moon. 

4  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religioii  and  Ethics,  ii,  835. 

5  1  Sam.  xx,  6  (clan  festival) ;  Isa.  i,  12  ;  Numb,  xxviii,  11. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  93 

the  non-Aryan  Bhils  of  India1  and  in  the  later  Hebrew  calendar;2 
in  both  these  cases  the  observance  occurs  only  once  in  the  year. 

214.  The  new  moon  of  the  first  month  marks  the  beginning  of 
the  year,  and  new  year's  day  is  celebrated,  particularly  in  the  more 
advanced  communities,  with  special  observances.  The  Hindu  pon- 
gol  and  similar  festivals  are  seasons  of  merriment,  with  giving  of 
presents,  and  religious  exercises.3  Though  these  occasions  now  in- 
clude agricultural  epochs,  we  may  recognize  in  them  an  interest  in 
the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  life.  A  like  character  attaches  to  the 
celebration  of  the  Japanese  new  year's  day.4  Of  Assyrian  observ- 
ances of  the  day  little  is  known,  but  at  Babylon  it  was  celebrated 
with  great  pomp,  and  with  it  was  connected  the  conception  of  the 
determination  of  human  fortunes  for  the  year  by  Marduk,  the  chief 
deity  of  the  city.5  The  late  Old  Testament  ritual  makes  it  a  taboo 
day  (first  day  of  the  seventh  month,  September-October) ;  no  servile 
work  is  to  be  done,  trumpets  are  to  be  blown  (apparently  to  mark 
its  solemnity),  and  a  special  sacrifice  is  to  be  offered;6  in  post- 
Biblical  times  the  feature  of  the  divine  assignment  of  fates  (probably 
adopted  from  the  Babylonians)  appears.  The  old  Roman  religious 
year  began  with  the  kalends  of  March,  when  the  sacred  fire  of 
Vesta  was  renewed,  a  procedure  obviously  intended  to  introduce  a 
new  era ;  on  the  later  civil  new  year's  day  (kalends  of  January) 
presents  were  exchanged,7  a  custom  everywhere  relatively  late,  a 
feature  in  the  gradual  secularization  of  ceremonies. 

215.  Solar  festivals,  as  such,  are  less  prominent  than  the  lunar 
in  religious  ritual.  Though  the  sun  was  a  great  god  widely  wor- 
shiped, it  was  little  used  in  the  construction  of  early  calendars. 
Primitive  astronomy  knew  hardly  anything  of  solstices  and  equi- 
noxes, and  where  these  are  noted  in  the  more  advanced  rituals,  they 

1  Hastings,  op.  cit,  ii,  555. 

2  Lev.  xxiii,  23;  Ps.  lxxxi,  4  [3].  On  the  Sabbath  as  perhaps  full-moon  day,  see 
below,  §  608.  3  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  449  ff. 

4  Buckley,  in  Saussaye's  Lehrbuch  der  Religionsgeschichte,  2d  ed.,  p.  S3. 

5  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  677  ff. 

6  Lev.  xxiii,  23  f . ;  Numb,  xxix,  1  ff.  The  Hebrew  text  of  Ezek.  xl,  1,  makes  the 
year  begin  on  the  tenth  day  of  some  month  unnamed  ;  but  the  Hebrew  is  probably 
to  be  corrected  after  the  Greek.   Cf.  Nowack,  Hcbrdische  Arehdologie,  ii,  158  f. 

7  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  p.  278. 


94       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

appear  to  be  attachments  to  observances  founded  on  other  consid- 
erations—  so  the  Roman  Saturnalia,  celebrated  near  the  winter 
solstice,  and  apparently  the  plebeian  festival  of  the  summer  solstice 
attached  to  the  worship  of  Fortuna ;  and  the  same  thing  is  proba- 
bly true  of  the  Semitic  and  Greek  festivals  that  occurred  near  the 
equinoxes  and  solstices.1 

216.  Elaborate  solstitial  ceremonies  are  practiced  by  the  North 
American  Pueblos.2  A  well-developed  solar  system  of  festivals 
existed  in  Peru,  where  the  sun  was  the  central  object  of  worship ; 
equinoxes  and  solstices  were  observed  with  great  ceremonies,  and 
especially  at  the  summer  solstice  the  rising  of  the  sun  was  hailed 
with  popular  rejoicing  as  a  sign  that  the  favor  of  the  deity  would 
be  extended  to  the  nation.3  Similar  ceremonies  may  have  existed 
in  Mexico  and  elsewhere,  but  in  general,  as  is  remarked  above,  the 
astronomical  feature  at  solar  epochs  yielded  to  other  associations. 
Occasional  festivals  occur  in  connection  with  the  worship  of  stars 
(especially  the  morning  star);4  the  Pleiades  are  objects  of  observa- 
tion among  some  low  tribes,  and  in  some  cases  (Society  Islands, 
Tahiti,  Hawaii,  New  Zealand)  the  year  began  with  the  rising  of  these 
stars,  but  apparently  no  festivals  are  dedicated  to  them.5  In  the  later 
theistic  development  various  deities  are  brought  into  connection 
with  heavenly  bodies,  and  their  cults  absorb  earlier  observances.6 

217.  Socially  the  agricultural  festivals  are  the  most  important 
of  the  early  festival  ceremonies ; 7  they  unite  the  people  in  public 
observances,  thus  furthering  the  communal  life,  and  they  satisfy 
the  popular  demand  for  amusement.  Doubtless  under  any  social 
conditions  gatherings  for  merrymaking  would  have  arisen,  but,  by 
reason  of  the  constitution  of  early  society,  they  necessarily  assume 
a  religious  character.  Whether  for  planting  or  for  reaping,  the  local 
god  must  be  considered ;  it  is  he  whose  aid  must  be  invoked  for 

i  Cf.  A.  Mommsen,  Feste  der  Stadt  Athen  (1898),  p.  55. 

2  J.  W.  Fewkes,  "The  Winter  Solstice  Ceremony  at  Walpi"  (in  The  American 
Anthropologist,  xi).  3  Prescott,  Peru,  i,  104,  127. 

4  A  Saracen  cult  is  described  in  Nili  opera  qncedam  (Paris,  1639),  PP-  2S,  117. 

5  Hollis,  The  Nandi,  p.  100  ;  Rivers,  The  Todas,  p.  593  ff. ;  cf.  Dorsey,  The  Skidi 
Pawnee,  p.  xviii  f. ;  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  iii,  132  f. 

6  For  some  fasting  observances  in  astral  cults  see  Vv  estermarck,  Origin  and  De- 
velopment of  the  Moral  Ideas,  ii,  312  f.  7  As  food  is  the  most  pressing  need. 


EA  RL  Y  RELIGIO  US  CEREMONIES  9  5 

coming  crops,  and  he  must  be  thanked  for  successful  seasons.  The 
festivals  occur  at  various  times  in  the  year  among  various  peoples, 
but  the  tone  of  merriment  is  the  predominant  one  — it  is  only  in  a 
few  cases  that  a  touch  of  seriousness  or  sadness  is  found.  Early 
festal  calendars  are  largely  agricultural.  In  Greece,  Rome,  and  Peru 
there  was  a  succession  of  festivals,  connected  with  planting  and 
reaping,  running  substantially  through  the  year  ;  other  ceremonies, 
of  course,  stood  side  by  side  with  them,  but  these  were  relatively  few. 

218.  Joyous  festivals  occur  especially  at  the  time  of  the  ripening 
of  crops  and  harvest.  The  old  Canaanite  autumn  feasts,  adopted 
by  the  Hebrews,  were  seasons  of  good  cheer.1  In  Greece  the  Pan- 
athenaea  fell  in  July-August,  the  Thesmophoria  in  October,  and 
the  Anthesteria  in  February, —  all  agricultural,  with  joyous  fea- 
tures ; 2  of  the  similar  Roman  festivals  the  Ferias  Latinae  fell  in 
April,  the  Feriae  Jovi  in  August,  the  Saturnalia  in  December,  and 
with  these  should  perhaps  be  included  the  Ambarvalia  (in  May)  and 
the  festival  of  the  horse  sacrifice  (in  October).3  Other  ceremonies 
of  this  nature  occur  in  India,  New  Zealand,  Torres  Straits  islands, 
and  in  the  old  Peruvian  cult. 

219.  Popular  festivities  easily  pass  into  license ;  examples  are 
the  Roman  Saturnalia  and  the  Hindu  Holi 4 ;  the  harvest  festival 
of  the  Hos  of  Northeastern  India  is  a  debauch,5  and  with  it  is 
connected  the  expulsion  of  evil  spirits  —  an  example  of  the  coa- 
lescence of  festivals.  A  peculiar  feature  in  certain  of  these  cere- 
monies is  the  exchange  of  places  between  masters  and  servants ; 
this  abandonment  of  ordinary  social  distinctions  is  an  expression 
of  the  desire  for  freedom  from  all  restraints,  and  is  found  in 
carnivals  generally  (in  the  Saturnalia  and  elsewhere).6 

1  Judg.  ix,  27  ;  Neh.  viii,  10. 

2  A.  Mommsen,  Feste  dcr  Stadt  Athen  (1S98),  Index,  s.w.;  Gardner  and  Jevons, 
Greek  Antiquities,  pp.  2S7  f.,  290,  292. 

3  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  pp.  95  ff.,  157  ff.,  26S  ff.,  1 14,  124  ff.,  241  ff . ;  cf.  article 
"  Mars  "  in  Roscher,  Lexikon,  col.  2416  f. 

4  Hopkins,  Religious  of  India,  p.  453  ff.      5  F  razor,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  iii,  jS  f. 
6  A  Babylonian  festival  of  this  sort  (Sakea)  is  mentioned  by  Athenaeus  (in  Deip- 

nosophistce,  xiv,  639)  on  the  authority  of  Rerosus,  and  ,?  Sakea"  has  been  identified 
with  "  zakmuk,"  the  Babylonian  New  Year's  Day  (cf.  the  story  in  Esth.  vi)  ;  but  the 
details  of  the  festival  and  of  the  Persian  Sakaea  (Strabo,  xi,  8)  are  obscure. 


96       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

220.  Ceremonies  of  a  serious  character  occur  in  connection  with 
the  eating  of  the  first  fruits  of  the  year.  In  developed  cults  (as  in 
the  Hebrew)  the  deity  is  recognized  as  the  giver  by  the  presentation 
of  a  portion  of  the  new  crop.1  In  very  early  cults  there  are  other 
procedures,  the  origin  and  significance  of  which  are  not  always  clear. 
So  far  as  the  ceremonial  eating,  a  preliminary  to  general  use,  is 
concerned,  this  may  be  understood  as  a  recognition,  more  or  less 
distinct,  of  some  supernatural  Power  to  whom  (or  to  which)  the 
supply  of  food  is  due.  The  obscurest  form  of  such  recognition  is 
found  among  the  Australian  Arunta.2  The  Nandi  practice  is  clearer 
—  the  god  is  invoked  to  bless  the  grain.3  In  the  Creek  Puskita 
(Busk)  there  is  perhaps  a  worship  of  the  sun  as  the  source  of  fertil- 
ity.4 Probably  the  element  of  recognition  of  extrahuman  power  (the 
object  being  to  secure  its  favor)  is  to  be  found  in  all  first-fruits  cere- 
monies. A  natural  result  of  this  recognition  is  that  it  is  unlawful  (that 
is,  dangerous)  to  partake  of  the  new  food  till  it  has  been  properly 
offered  to  the  deity.  The  ceremonial  features  (such  as  the  choice  of 
the  persons  to  make  the  offering)  are  simply  the  carrying  over  of 
general  social  arrangements  into  religious  observances  —  the  minis- 
trant  is  the  father  of  the  family,  or  the  chief  of  the  tribe,  or  the  priest 
or  other  elected  person,  according  to  the  particular  local  customs. 

221.  The  sadness  or  gloom  that  sometimes  attaches  to  these 
ceremonies  has  been  variously  explained,  and  is  due  doubtless  to 
various  orders  of  ideas;  it  comes  probably  from  the  coalescence 
of  other  cults  with  the  agricultural  cults  proper.  The  remembrance 
of  ancestors  is  not  unnatural  at  such  a  time,  and  sorrow  may  be  ex- 
pressed for  their  death;  such  is  perhaps  the  case  in  the  Nandi 
usage  mentioned  above — the  women  sorrowfully  take  home  baskets 
of  elusine  grain,  and  the  bits  that  drop  in  the  house  are  left  to 
the  souls  of  the  deceased.  Sorrow  appears  also  in  other  agricul- 
tural seasons,  as  in  the  Roman  Vestalia  (in  June)  and  the  Greek 
Thesmophoria  (in  the  autumn),  in  which  cases  more  likely  it  is 
connected  with  the  fear  of  evil  influences.5     So  the  great  tribal 

1  Lev.  xxiii.  2  See  above,  §  128.  3  Mollis,  The  Nandi,  p.  46  f. 

4  Gatschet,  Migration  Legend  of  the  Creeks,  p.  177  ff« 

5  Cf.  the  ceremony  of  the  pharmakos  in  the  festival  of  the  Thargelia  (Miss  Harri- 
son, Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  p.  95  ff .) . 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  CEREMONIES  97 

purification  of  the  Creeks,  at  the  beginning  of  a  new  year,  natu- 
rally coincides  with  the  gathering  of  the  new  crop. 

222.  A  further  extension  of  the  conception  of  the  sacredness  of 
food  (whether  or  not  of  the  first  eating)  appears  in  the  Mexican 
custom  (in  May  and  December)  of  making  dough  images  of  gods, 
the  eating  of  which  sanctifies  the  worshiper ; 1  here  the  god  dwells 
in  the  bread  of  which  he  is  the  giver. 

223.  In  addition  to  the  astral  and  agricultural  festivals  above 
described  there  has  been  the  observance  of  long  periods  to  which 
a  religious  significance  was  sometimes  attached.  The  Egyptian 
Sothis  period2  (of  1461  years),  the  Greek  period  of  eight  years 
(oktaeteris),  and  the  Mexican  period  of  fifty-two  years  were  calen- 
dary — attempts  to  harmonize  the  lunar  and  solar  years  ;  in  Mexico 
the  new  cycle  introduced  a  new  religious  era  —  a  great  ceremony 
was  held  in  which  domestic  fires  were  rekindled  from  the  sacred 
fires.  The  Hebrew  jubilee  period  (of  fifty  years),  apparently  a  late 
development  from  the  sabbatical  year,  was  intended,  among  other 
things,  to  maintain  the  division  of  landed  property  among  the  people 
—  all  alienated  land  was  to  return  finally  to  its  original  owner  — 
participation  in  the  blessings  bestowed  by  the  national  deity  being 
conditioned  on  having  a  share  in  the  land,  of  which  he  was  held  to 
be  the  proprietor ;  the  proposed  arrangement  turned  out,  however, 
owing  to  changed  social  conditions,  to  be  impracticable. 

224.  It  thus  appears  that  ceremonies  of  various  sorts  have  played 
a  very  important  part  in  religious  life.  They  have  been  the  most 
popularly  effective  presentation  of  religious  ideas,  and  they  have 
preserved  for  us  religious  conceptions  that  without  them  would  have 
remained  unknown.  Their  social  character  has  insured  their  per- 
sistence3—  ceremonies  of  to-day  contain  features  that  go  back  to 
the  earliest  known  stratum  of  organized  religious  life.    While  the 

1  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  ii,  337  ff. 

2  This  period  has  been  generally  held  to  be  calendary.  Its  calendary  reality  is 
denied  by  Legge  (in  Recueil  des  travaux,  xxxi)  and  Foucart  (in  Hastings,  Encyclo- 
paedia of  Religion  and  Ethics,  article  ''  Calendar  [Egyptian]  "). 

3  A  noteworthy  instance  of  this  persistence  appears  in  the  history  of  the  Bene- 
Israel,  a  body  of  Jews  living  in  the  Bombay  Presidency  (article  "  Bene-Israel  "  in 
Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics)  ;  they  preserve  the  Jewish  religious 
festivals,  but  under  Indian  names. 


98       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

motives  that  underlie  them  (desire  to  propitiate  supernatural 
Powers,  demand  for  an  objective  presentation  of  ideas,  and  love 
of  amusement)  are  the  same  throughout  the  world,  their  forms 
reflect  the  various  climatic,  economic,  and  general  cultural  condi- 
tions of  clans,  tribes,  and  nations.  They  acquire  consistency  with 
the  organization  of  society ;  they  tend  to  become  more  and  more 
elaborate,  just  as  in  other  points  social  intercourse  tends  to 
produce  formal  definiteness ;  they  grow  decrepit  and  have  to 
be  artificially  strengthened  and  revived;  they  lose  their  original 
meanings  and  must  be  constantly  reinterpreted  to  bring  them 
into  accord  with  new  ideas,  social,  moral,  and  religious.  Their 
history,  in  a  word,  is  the  history  of  the  development  of  human 
ideas,  and  it  sets  forth  the  religious  unity  of  the  race.  The  selec- 
tions given  above  are  only  a  small  part  of  the  known  material, 
a  full  treatment  of  which  would  require  a  separate  volume. 


CHAPTER   IV 

EARLY   CULTS 

225.  The  lowest  tribes  known  to  us  regard  the  whole  world  of 
nature  and  the  human  dead  as  things  to  be  feared  and  usually  as 
things  to  be  propitiated.  In  most  cases  they  conceive  of  some  an- 
thropomorphic being  as  the  creator  or  arranger  of  the  world.  But 
in  all  cases  they  regard  animals,  plants,  and  inanimate  objects  as 
capable  of  doing  extraordinary  things.  All  these  beings  they  think 
of  as  akin  to  men ;  transformations  from  human  to  nonhuman  and 
from  nonhuman  to  human  are  believed  to  be  possible  and  frequent. 

226.  From  the  point  of  view  of  the  savage  mind  this  theory 
of  the  world  is  inevitable.  Ignorant  of  what  we  call  natural  law, 
they  can  see  no  reason  why  the  phenomena  of  life  should  not  be 
under  the  control  of  any  of  the  powers  known  to  them  ;  and  for 
sources  of  power  they  look  to  the  things  around  them.  All  objects 
of  nature  are  mysterious  to  the  savage  —  stones,  hills,  waters,  the 
sky,  the  heavenly  bodies,  trees,  plants,  fishes,  birds,  beasts,  are  full  of 
movement,  and  seemingly  display  capacities  that  induce  the  savage 
to  see  in  them  the  causes  of  things.  Since  their  procedures  seem  to 
him  to  be  in  general  similar  to  his  own,  he  credits  them  with  a  nature 
like  his  own.  As  they  are  mysterious  and  powerful,  he  fears  them  and 
tries  to  make  allies  of  them  or  to  ward  off  their  injurious  influences. 

227.  But  while  he  excludes  nothing  from  his  list  of  possible 
powers,  he  is  vitally  interested  only  in  those  objects  with  which 
he  comes  into  contact,  and  he  learns  their  powers  by  his  own 
experience  or  through  the  wisdom  inherited  from  his  forefathers. 
His  procedure  is  strictly  scientific ;  he  adopts  only  what  observa- 
tion has  shown  him  and  others  to  be  true.  Different  tribes  are 
interested  in  different  things  —  some  are  indifferent  to  one  thing, 
others  to  another,  according  to  the  topographical  and  economic 
milieu.     The  savage  is  not  without   discrimination.     He  is  quite 

99 


IOO     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

capable  of  distinguishing  between  the  living  and  the  dead.  Not 
all  stones  are  held  by  him  to  be  alive  in  any  important  sense,  and 
not  all  beasts  to  be  powerful.  He  is  a  practical  thinker  and  deals 
with  each  phenomenon  as  it  presents  itself,  and  particularly  as  it 
shows  itself  to  be  connected  with  his  interests.  He  is  constantly 
on  the  alert  to  distinguish  between  the  profitable  and  the  unprofit- 
able, the  helpful  and  the  injurious.  He  himself  is  the  center  of  his 
whole  scientific  and  religious  system,  and  the  categories  into  which  he 
divides  all  things  are  determined  by  his  own  sense  of  self-interest.1 

228.  It  is  often  by  accident  that  one  object  or  another  displays 
itself  as  helpful  or  harmful,  just  as,  in  a  later  and  higher  form  of 
religious  belief,  a  theophany  is  often,  as  to  time  and  place,  a  matter 
of  accident.  Indeed,  most  manifestations  of  extrahuman  power  in 
the  earliest  times  may  be  said  to  come  to  man  incidentally,  since 
he  does  not  generally  demand  them  from  the  gods  or  make  experi- 
ments in  order  to  discover  them.  But  in  the  nature  of  the  case 
many  things  meet  him  as  to  which  he  is  obliged  to  use  judgment, 
and  of  these  a  certain  number  appear  to  him  to  be  powerful. 

229.  These  objects  are  held  by  him  to  be  in  some  sort  akin  to 
man.  This  seems  to  be  his  view  of  certain  dead  things  in  which  a 
mysterious  power  is  held  to  reside.  \\  nen  such  objects  are  parts 
of  animals  (bones,  feathers,  claws,  tails,  feet,  fat,  etc.),  or  of  vege- 
tables that  are  used  as  charms,  it  may  be  supposed  that  they  simply 
retain  the  power  resident  in  the  objects  of  which  they  are  parts  — 
objects  originally  living  and  sacred.  In  other  cases  an  indwelling 
supernatural  being  is  assumed,  as,  for  example,  in  minerals  whose 
shape  and  color  are  remarkable. 

230.  Fetish  objects  in  West  Africa  are  believed  to  be  inhabited 
by  spirits.2   The  Australian  sacred  object  called  churinga — a  thing 

1  See  above,  §§4,  7. 

2  The  word  "  fetish  *'  (from  Portuguese  fclt'i^o,* artificial,'  then  'idol,  charm,'),  de- 
vised originally  as  a  name  of  charms  used  by  the  natives  of  the  West  African  coast,  is 
often  employed  as  a  general  name  for  early  religious  practices.  Its  proper  use  is 
in  the  sense  of  a  dead  object,  as  a  piece  of  clay  or  a  twig,  in  which,  it  is  held,  a  spirit 
dwells.  The  fetish  is  often  practically  a  god,  often  a  household  god  ;  the  interesting 
thing  about  it  is  that  the  spirit,  generally  a  tutelary  spirit,  can  enter  the  object  or  de- 
part at  will,  may  be  brought  in  by  appropriate  ceremonies,  and  may  be  dismissed 
when  it  is  no  longer  considered  useful. 


EARLY  CULTS  IOI 

of  mysterious  potency  —  is  believed  to  be  the  abode  of  the  soul 
of  an  ancestor  endowed  with  extraordinary  power.  Many  such 
fetish  objects  are  found  all  over  the  world. 

231.  Further,  the  conception  of  a  life-force,  existing  in  many 
things  (perhaps  in  all  things),  appears  to  have  been  prominent  in 
savage  religious  systems.  Life  implies  power ;  but  while  it  is  held 
to  reside  in  all  things,  its  manifestations  vary  according  to  the 
relations  between  things  and  human  needs.  The  life-force  in  its 
higher  manifestations  has  been  isolated  in  thought  by  some  more 
advanced  savages,  especially  in  North  America  and  Polynesia,  and 
has  been  given  a  definite  name ;  in  Polynesia  and  Melanesia  it  is 
called  mana,  and  other  names  for  it  occur  elsewhere.1 

232.  It  shows  itself  in  any  object,  nonhuman  or  human,  that 
produces  extraordinary  effects.  In  the  Pacific  islands  all  great 
achievements  of  men  are  attributed  to  it  —  all  great  chiefs  possess 
it  in  an  eminent  degree ; 2  it  is  then  nearly  equivalent  to  what  we 
call  capacity  or  genius.  When  it  resides  in  an  inanimate  thing  it 
may  produce  a  physical  effect :  it  comes  up  in  the  steam  of'  the 
American  sacred  sweat  lodge,  and  gives  health  to  the  body  (and 
thus  buoyancy  to  the  mind)  ; 3  here  it  is  identical  with  the  soothing 
and  stimulating  power  of  the  steam.  It  is,  in  a  word,  a  term  for 
the  force  residing  in  any  object.4  Like  sickness  and  other  evils, 
blessings,  and  curses,  it  is  conceived  of  as  having  physical  form  and 
may  be  transmitted  from  its  possessor  to  another  person  or  object. 
In  some  cases  its  name  is  given  to  the  thing  to  which  it  is  attached.5 

233.  How  widely  the  conception  exists  is  uncertain ;  further 
research  may  discover  it  in  regions  where  up  to  now  it  has  not 


1  Algonkin  manito  or  manitu  (W.  Jones,  in  Journal  of  American  folklore,  xviii, 
190) ;  Iroquois  orenda  ;  Siouan  wakonda  ;  Chickasa  hullo  ( Joztmal  of  American  Folk- 
lore, xx,  57);  cf.  the  Masai  n'gai,  'the  unknown,  incomprehensible'  (Hinde,  The 
Last  of  the  Masai,  p.  99),  connected  with  storms  and  the  telegraph.  Other  names 
perhaps  exist. 

2  Codrington,  The  Melanesia/is,  Index,  s.v.  Mana.  :i  W .  Jones,  op.  cit. 

4  It  has  therefore  been  compared  to  the  modern  idea  of  force  as  inherent  in 
matter. 

5  The  American  manitu  is  an  appellation  of  a  personal  supernatural  being.  The 
Siouan  wakonda  is  invoked  in  prayer  (Miss  Fletcher,  The  Tree  in  the  Dakotan 
Grouf) . 


102    INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

been  recognized.  Scarcely  a  trace  of  it  exists  in  the  higher  ancient 
religions.  The  Latin  genius,  the  indwelling  power  of  the  man,  bears 
a  resemblance  to  it.  The  Old  Testament  "  spirit  of  God  "  is  said 
to  "come  on"  a  man  or  to  be  "poured  out  on"  him,  as  if  it  were 
a  physical  thing  —  it  gives  courage  and  strength  to  the  warrior  and 
knowledge  to  the  worshiper ; 1  the  power  or  energy  is  here  (in  the 
earlier  Hebrew  writings)  identified  with  the  spirit  or  animus  of  the 
deity,  which  appears  to  be  thought  of  as  physical. 

234.  Mana  is  conceived  of  by  the  peoples  mentioned  above  not 
a*s  a  vague  influence  diffused  through  the  world,  but  as  a  power 
resident  in  certain  definite  persons  or  things.  It  is  impersonal  in 
the  sense  in  which  any  quality,  as  courage,  is  impersonal,  but  it 
is  not  itself  an  object  of  worship;  worship  is  directed  toward  the 
thing  that  possesses  or  imparts  mana.  It  may  reside  in  a  natural 
object  or  in  a  supernatural  being  —  the  object  will  be  used  to  secure 
it,  the  supernatural  being  will  be  asked  to  bestow  it.  In  both  cases 
the  act  will  be  religious. 

235.  Mana  is  itself,  strictly  speaking,  a  scientific  biological  con- 
ception, but  it  necessarily  enters  into  alliance  with  religion.  Belief 
in  it  exists  along  with  belief  in  ghosts,  spirits,  and  gods  —  it  is  not 
a  rival  of  these,  but  an  attachment  to  them.  As  a  thing  desirable, 
it  is  one  of  the  good  gifts  that  the  great  Powers  can  bestow,  and 
it  thus  leads  to  worship.  It  is  found  in  distinct  form,  as  is  pointed 
out  above,  only  in  superior  tribes  —  it  has  not  been  discovered 
in  very  low  communities,  and  appears  not  to  belong  to  the  earliest 
stratum  of  religious  beliefs.  But  it  rests  on  the  view  that  all  things 
are  endowed  with  life,  and  this  view  may  be  taken  to  be  universal. 
The  doctrine  of  mana  gradually  vanishes  before  a  better  knowledge 
of  the  human  constitution,2  a  larger  conception  of  the  gods,  and 
a  greater  trust  in  them.3 

236.  Things  and  persons  endowed  with  peculiar  power,  whether 
as  seats  of  mana  or  as  abodes  of  spirits,  are  set  apart  by  themselves, 


1  Judg.  xiv,  19  ;  1  Sam.  xix,  23  ;  Ezek.  xxxix,  29.    Fury  also  is  said  to  be  poured 
out.   Cf.  Mark  v,  30,  where  power  (dtivafxis)  is  said  to  go  out  of  Jesus. 

2  Cf.  the  Greek  energeia  and  entelecheia. 

3  Cf.  I.  King,  The  Development  of  Religion,  chap.  vi. 


EARLY  CULTS  103 

are  regarded  with  feelings  of  awe,  and  thus  become  "  sacred." 
In  process  of  time  the  accumulated  experience  of  generations  builds 
up  a  mass  of  sacred  objects  which  become  a  part  of  the  religious 
possessions  of  the  community.  The  quality  of  sacredness  is  some- 
times attached  to  objects  and  customs  when  these  are  regarded 
as  necessary  to  the  well-being  of  the  community,  or  highly  con- 
venient. A  house,  for  example,  represents  the  life  of  the  family, 
and  is  therefore  a  thing  to  be  revered ;  and  in  many  tribes  the 
walls,  which  guard  the  house  against  intrusion,  and  the  door  and 
the  threshold,  which  offer  entrance  into  it,  are  considered  sacred  ; 
the  hearth  especially,  the  social  center  of  the  dwelling,  becomes  a 
sacred  place. 

237.  The  savage  communities  with  which  we  are  acquainted  all 
possess  their  stock  of  such  things  —  the  beliefs  concerning  sacred 
objects  are  held  by  all  the  members  of  the  tribe.  The  development 
of  the  idea  of  '  sacred '  is  a  social  communal  one,  but  it  is  impos- 
sible for  us  to  say  precisely  how  all  the  individual  sacred  objects 
were  selected,  or  what  was  the  exact  attitude  of  primeval  man 
toward  all  the  things  that  are  now  regarded  as  sacred. 

238.  The  conception  of  power  resident  in  certain  things  to  con- 
trol human  life  is  represented  by  our  term  "  luck."  The  formulation 
of  "  luck  "  systems  goes  on  in  savage  and  half-civilized  communities 
up  to  a  certain  point,  and  is  then  checked  by  the  rise  of  higher 
religious  ideas  and  by  the  growth  of  the  conception  of  natural 
law.  But  long  after  the  grounds  of  belief  in  luck  have  ceased  to 
be  accepted  by  the  advanced  part  of  the  community,  many  indi- 
vidual forms  of  good  luck  and  bad  luck  maintain  themselves  in 
popular  belief.1  Some  of  these  beliefs  may  be  traced  back  to  their 
savage  sources,  especially  those  that  are  connected  with  animals ; 
the  origin  of  most  of  them  is  obscure.  They  coalesce  to  some 
extent  with  conceptions  derived  from  magic,  divination,  and  taboo. 
The  persistence  of  such  savage  dogma  into  civilized  times  en- 
ables us  to  understand  how  natural  this  dogma  was  for  early 
forms  of  society. 

1  Examples  in  J.  H.  King,  The  Supernatural  Cf.  T.  S.  Knowlson,  Origins  of 
Popular  Superstitions,  etc.;  T.  Keightley.  Fairy  Mythology. 


104     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

239 .  In  the  practices  mentioned  above  there  is  no  worship  proper. 
Mana  is  not  thought  of  as  being  in  itself  a  personal  power,  and  wor- 
ship is  paid  only  to  objects  regarded  as  having  personality.  The 
fetish  derives  its  value  from  the  spirit  supposed  to  be  resident 
in  the  fetish  objects ;  these  are  commonly  worn  as  charms,  and 
the  attitude  of  the  man  to  such  a  charm,  though  he  regards  it  as 
powerful,  seems  to  be  not  exactly  that  of  worship  —  he  keeps 
it  as  a  protection  so  long  as  it  appears  to  be  useful,  but,  as  is 
remarked  above,  he  acts  as  if  he  were  its  master.  He  believes 
that  the  efficient  factor  is  the  indwelling  spirit,  but  he  commonly 
distinguishes  between  this  spirit  and  a  god  proper.  When,  how- 
ever, the  fetish  is  regarded  as  a  tutelary  divinity,  it  loses  its  lower 
character  and  takes  its  place  among  the  gods. 

240.  We  turn  now  to  man's  attitude  toward  other  objects,  simi- 
larly regarded  as  sacred,  but  invested  with  distinct  personality,  and 
supposed  to  act  consciously  on  human  life.  These  are  all  such  things 
as  men's  experiences  bring  them  into  intimate  relations  with,  this 
relationship  forming  the  basis  of  the  high  regard  in  which  they  are 
held.  They  are  animals,  plants,  mountains,  rivers,  heavenly  bodies, 
living  men,  and  ghosts.  These  are  objects  of  cults,  many  of  them 
in  some  cases  being  worshiped  at  the  same  time  in  a  single  com- 
munity. A  chronological  order  in  the  adoption  of  such  cults  it  is 
not  possible  to  determine.  All  objects  stand  together  in  man's  con- 
sciousness in  early  cultural  strata,  and  the  data  now  at  command 
do  not  enable  us  to  say  which  of  them  first  assumed  for  him  a  re- 
ligious character  ;  the  chronological  order  of  cults  may  have  differed 
in  different  communities  when  the  general  social  conditions  were 
different.  We  may  begin  with  the  cult  of  animals  without  there- 
by assuming  that  it  came  first  in  order  of  time. 

Animals 

241.  Of  all  nonhuman  natural  objects  it  would  seem  to  have 
been  the  animal  that  most  deeply  impressed  early  man.1  All  objects 
were  potentially  divine  for  him,  and  all  received  worship,  but  none 

1  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  3d  ed.,  ii,  229  ff . ;  article  ''Animals"  in  Hastings, 
Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


EARLY  CULTS  105 

entered  so  intimately  into  his  life  as  animals.  He  was  doubtless 
struck,  perhaps  awed,  by  the  brightness  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  but 
they  were  far  off,  intangible ;  mountains  were  grand  and  mighty, 
but  motionless ;  stones  lay  in  his  path,  but  did  not  approach  him  ; 
rivers  ran,  but  in  an  unchanging  way,  rarely  displaying  emotion ; 
plants  grew,  and  furnished  food,  but  showed  little  sign  of  intelli- 
gence. Animals,  on  the  other  hand,  dwelt  with  him  in  his  home, 
met  him  at  every  turn,  and  did  things  that  seemed  to  him  to  exhibit 
qualities  identical  with  his  own,  not  only  physical  but  also  mental 
—  they  showed  swiftness,  courage,  ferocity,  and  also  skill  and  cun- 
ning. In  certain  regards  they  appeared  to  be  his  superiors,  and 
thus  became  standards  of  power  and  objects  of  reverence. 

242.  At  a  very  early  period  the  belief  in  social  relations  between 
men  and  animals  appears.  The  latter  were  supposed  to  have  souls, 
to  continue  their  existence  after  death,  sometimes  to  come  to  life 
on  earth  after  death.  Their  social  life  was  supposed  to  be  similar 
to  that  of  men ; 1  in  Samoa  the  various  species  form  social  units,2 
the  Ainu  see  tattoo  marks  on  frogs  and  sparrows,3  the  Arabs  recog- 
nize a  clan  organization  in  beasts.4 

243.  From  identity  of  nature  comes  the  possibility  of  transfor- 
mation and  transmigration.5  An  Australian  of  the  Kangaroo  clan 
explained  that  he  might  be  called  either  kangaroo  or  man  —  it  was 
all  the  same,  man-kangaroo  or  kangaroo-man,  and  the  Australian 
legends  constantly  assume  change  from  human  to  animal  and  from 
animal  to  human.6  The  same  belief  appears  in  Africa  and  North 
America,  and  may  be  assumed  to  be  universal  among  savages.  It 
survives  in  the  Greek  transformation  stories  and  in  the  werwolf 
and  swan  maiden  of  the  European  popular  creed.  It  is  the  basis 
of  a  part  of  the  theory  of  the  transmigration  of  souls.7 

1  This  may  have  been  simply  the  transference  to  them  of  human  custom,  or  it 
may  also  have  been  suggested  by  the  obvious  social  organization  of  such  animals  as 
bees,  ants,  goats,  deer,  monkeys.  2  Turner,  Samoa,  pp.  21,  26. 

3  Batchelor,  The  Ainu,  p.  27. 

A  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  (new  ed.,  see  p.  106)  p.  128  f. 

5  A.  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  i,  1 17  ff. 

6  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  .Australia,  pp.  3S9,  401.  Some 
Australians  believed  in  an  original  gradual  transformation  of  animals  and  plants  into 
human  beings.         "  On  the  conception  of  animals  as  ancestors  see  below,  §  449  f. 


106     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

244.  The  relations  of  early  man  with  animals  are  partly  friendly, 
partly  hostile.  A  friendly  attitude  is  induced  by  admiration  of  their 
powers  and  desire  for  their  aid.  Such  an  attitude  is  presupposed 
in  the  myths  of  intermarriage  between  beasts  and  men.  It  is  per- 
haps visible  also  in  the  custom  of  giving  or  assuming  names  of 
animals  as  personal  names  of  men,  though  this  custom  may  arise 
from  the  opinion  that  animals  are  the  best  expressions  of  certain 
qualities,  or  from  some  conception  underlying  totemistic  organi- 
zation ;  the  general  history  of  savage  proper  names  has  not  yet 
been  written.  Beast  tales,  likewise,  bear  witness  to  man's  opinion 
of  the  cleverness  or  folly  of  his  nonhuman  brethren,  and  perhaps 
originally  to  nothing  more.  The  distinctest  expression  of  friendli- 
ness is  seen  in  certain  religious  customs  spoken  of  below. 

245.  On  the  other  hand,  early  man  necessarily  comes  into  con- 
flict with  animals.  Against  some  of  them  he  is  obliged  to  protect 
himself  by  force  or  by  skillful  contrivance ;  others  must  be  slain 
for  food.  With  all  of  them  he  deals  in  such  a  way  as  to  secure 
his  own  well-being,  and  thus  comes  to  regard  them  as  things  sub- 
servient to  him,  to  be  used  in  such  way  as  he  may  find  profitable. 
Those  that  he  cannot  use  he  gradually  exterminates,  or,  at  a  later 
stage,  these,  banished  to  thickets,  mountains,  deserts,  caves,  and 
other  inhospitable  places,  are  excluded  from  human  society  and 
identified  with  demons.1 

246.  The  two  attitudes,  of  friendliness  and  of  hostility,  coexist 
throughout  the  savage  period,  and,  in  softened  form,  even  in  half- 
civilized  life.  They  represent  two  points  of  view,  both  of  which 
issue  from  man's  social  needs.  Early  man  is  logical,  but  he  com- 
prehends the  necessity  of  not  pushing  logic  too  far  —  he  is  capable 
of  holding  at  the  same  time  two  mutually  contradictory  views,  and 
of  acting  on  each  as  may  suit  his  convenience  ;  he  makes  his  dogma 
yield  to  the  facts  of  life  (a  saving  principle  not  confined  to  savages, 

1  A  demon  may  be  denned  as  a  supernatural  being  with  whom,  for  various  reasons, 
men  have  not  formed  friendly  relations.  Cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites, 
new  ed.,  p.  119  ff.,  on  the  Arabian  jinn  ;  De  Groot,  Religion  of  the  Chinese,  p.  13  ff., 
for  the  Chinese  belief  in  demonic  animals.  On  the  origin,  names,  and  functions 
of  demons  and  on  exorcismal  ceremonies  connected,  with  them  see  below,  §  690  ff ., 
and  above,  §138  ff. 


EARLY  CULTS  107 

but  acted  on  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  by  all  societies).  He  slays 
sacred  animals  for  divinatory  and  other  religious  purposes,  for  food, 
or  in  self-defense ;  he  fears  their  anger,  but  his  fear  is  overcome 
by  hunger  ;  he  offers  profuse  apologies,  explains  that  he  acts  without 
ill  will  and  that  the  bones  of  the  animal  will  be  preserved  and  hon- 
ored, or  he  declares  that  it  is  not  he  but  some  one  else  that  is  the 
slayer  —  but  he  does  not  hesitate  to  kill.1 

247.  This  fact  —  the  existence  of  different  points  of  view  —  en- 
ables us  to  understand  in  part  the  disrespectful  treatment  of  sacred 
animals  in  folk- tales.  Such  tales  are  the  product  of  popular  fancy, 
standing  apart  from  the  serious  and  solemn  conceptions  of  the 
tribal  religion.  The  reciter,  who  will  not  fail  at  the  proper  time  to 
pay  homage  to  his  tribal  patron,  does  not  hesitate  at  other  times 
to  put  him  into  ridiculous  and  disgraceful  situations.2 

248.  Man's  social  contact  with  the  lower  animals  is  doubtless  as 
old  as  man  himself,  but  there  are  no  records  of  his  earliest  life,  and 
it  is  not  possible  to  say  exactly  when  and  how  his  religious  relations 
with  them  began.  His  attitude,  toward  them,  as  is  remarked  above, 
was  a  mixed  one ;  in  general,  however,  it  may  be  assumed  that 
constant  intercourse  with  them  revealed  their  great  qualities  and 
impressed  on  him  the  necessity  of  securing  their  good  will.  This  was 
especially  true  of  those  of  them  that  stood  nearest  to  him  and  were 
of  greatest  importance  for  his  safety  and  convenience.  These,  in- 
vested with  mystery  by  reason  of  their  power  and  their  strangeness, 
were  held  in  great  respect  as  quasi-gods,  were  approached  with 
caution,  and  thus  acquired  the  character  of  sacredness.  Gradually, 
as  human  society  was  better  and  better  organized,  as  conceptions 
of  government  became  clearer,  and  as  the  natures  of  the  various 
animals  were  more  closely  studied,  means  were  devised  of  guard- 
ing against  their  anger  and  securing  their  friendship  and  aid.  Our 
earliest  information  of  savage  life  reveals  in  every  tribe  an  in- 
choate pantheon  of  beasts.  All  the  essential  apparatus  of  public 
religion  is  present  in  these  communities  in  embrvonic  form  —  later 

1  So  the  Eskimo,  the  Ainu,  the  Redmen,  and  modern  Arahs  in  Africa  ;  many 
other  instances  are  cited  by  Frazer  in  his  Golden  Bought  2d  ed.,  ii,  3S6  ff. 

2  Examples  are  found  in  many  folk-stories  of  savages  everywhere. 


108      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

movements  have  had  for  their  object  merely  to  clarify  ideas  and 
refine  procedures. 

249.  The  animals  revered  by  a  tribe  are  those  of  its  vicinage, 
the  inhabitants  of  its  hunting  grounds.  Some  of  these  man  uses 
as  food,  some  he  fears.  His  relation  to  plains,  mountains,  forests, 
lakes,  rivers,  and  seas,  influences  his  choice  of  sacred  beasts.  Usu- 
ally there  are  many  of  them,  and  the  natural  inference  is  that  origi- 
nally all  animals  are  sacred,  and  that  gradually  those  most  important 
for  man  are  singled  out  as  objects  of  special  regard. 

250.  Thus,  to  mention  the  principal  of  them :  in  Africa  we  find 
lion,  leopard,  hyena,  hippopotamus,  crocodile,  bull,  ram,  dog,  cat,  ape, 
grasshopper ;  in  Oceania,  kangaroo,  emu,  pig,  heron,  owl,  rail,  eel, 
cuttlefish ;  in  Asia,  lion,  elephant,  bear,  horse,  bull,  dog,  pig,  eagle, 
tiger,  water  wagtail,  whale  ;  in  Europe,  bear,  wolf,  horse,  bull,  goat, 
swan ;  in  America,  whale,  bear,  wolf,  fox,  coyote,  hare,  opossum, 
deer,  monkey,  tiger,  beaver,  turtle,  eagle,  raven,  various  fishes. 
The  snake  seems  to  have  been  generally  revered,  though  it  was 
sometimes  regarded  as  hostile.1  Since  animals  are  largely  val- 
ued as  food,  changes  in  the  animals  specially  honored  follow  on 
changes  in  economic  organization  (hunting,  pastoral,  and  agricul- 
tural stages). 

251.  Often  animals  are  looked  on  as  the  abodes  or  incarnations 
of  gods  or  spirits :  so  various  birds,  fishes,  and  beasts  in  Polynesia 
(in  Samoa  every  man  has  a  tutelary  deity,  which  appears  in  the 
form  of  an  animal2),  Siberia,  Mexico,  and  elsewhere.  In  other 
cases  they  are  revered  as  incarnations  of  deceased  men.3  Where  a 
species  of  animal  is  supposed  to  represent  a  god,  this  view  is  prob- 
ably to  be  regarded  not  as  a  generalization  from  an  individualistic 
to  a  specific  conception  (a  process  too  refined  for  savages),  but  as 
an  attempt  to  carry  over  to  the  animal  world  the  idea  of  descent 

1  For  other  sacred  animals  see  N.  W.  Thomas,  article  "Animals"  in  Hastings, 
Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics.  '2  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  238. 

3  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  ii,  430  ff. ;  Thomas,  article  "  Animals  "  cited  above ; 
Shortland,  Traditions  of  New  Zealand,  iv  ;  Marsden,  Sumatra,  p.  292;  Schoolcraft, 
Indian  Tribes,  i,  34  ;  v,  652  ;  Waitz,  Anthropologic,  iii,  190  ;  Callaway,  Amazulus,  p.  196  ; 
A.  B.  Ellis,  The  Tshi,  p.  150;  Mouhot,  Indo-China,  i,  252  ;  J.  Wasiljev,  Heidnische 
Gebrduche  dcr  Wotyaks,  pp.  26,  78,  etc.;  G.  de  la  Vega,  Comeniarios  Reales,  bk.  i, 
chap,  ix,  etc.  (Peru)  ;  Miss  Kingsley,  Travels,  p.  492. 


EARLY  CULTS  1 09 

from   a   common  ancestor   combined  with  the  idea  of  a  special 
creator  for  every  family  of  animals.1 

252.  In  the  course  of  religious  growth  the  beast-god  may  be 
replaced  or  succeeded  by  an  anthropomorphic  god,  and  then  the 
former  is  regarded  as  sacred  to  the  latter  —  the  recollection  of  the 
beast  form  still  remains  after  the  more  refined  conception  has  been 
reached,  and  the  two,  closely  connected  in  popular  feeling,  can  be 
brought  into  harmony  only  by  making  one  subordinate  to  the  other.2 
A  certain  element  or  flavor  of  divinity  clings  to  the  beast  a  long 
time,  but  finally  vanishes  under  the  light  of  better  knowledge. 

253.  While  the  cases,  very  numerous,  in  which  animals  are  as- 
sociated in  worship  with  gods  —  in  composite  forms  (as  in  Egypt, 
Babylonia,  and  Assyria)  or  as  symbols  of  deities  or.  sacred  to  them 
—  point  probably  to  early  beast-cults,  Egypt  alone  of  the  ancient 
civilized  nations  maintained  the  worship  of  the  living  animal.3  For 
the  better  thinkers  of  Egypt  beasts  doubtless  were  incarnations 
or  symbols  of  deities ;  but  the  mass  of  the  people  appear  to  have 
regarded  them  as  gods  in  their  own  persons. 

254.  Reverence  for  animals  persists  in  attenuated  form  in  civi- 
lized nations  in  various  superstitions  connected  with  them.  Their 
appearances  and  their  cries  are  believed  to  portend  success  or  disas- 
ter. The  great  number  of  "signs"  recognized  and  relied  on  by  un- 
educated and  educated  persons  at  the  present  day  bear  witness  to 
the  strong  hold  that  the  cult  of  animals  had  on  early  man.4 

255.  It  is  in  keeping  with  early  ideas  that  savages  often,  per- 
haps generally,  ascribe  the  creation  or  construction  of  the  world  (so 
far  as  they  know  it)  to  animals.   The  creation  (whether  by  beasts  or 

1  Turner,  op.  cit.,  p.  242  ;  Castren,  Finnische  Mythologie,  pp.  106,  160,  189,  etc.; 
Parkman,  Jesuits  in  North  America  (1906),  pp.61  f..  66  :  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New 
World,  pp.  3,  105,  127,  161,175,  272  !  cr-  Acosta,  Historia  de  las  Indias,  bk.  v,  chap.  iv. 

2  So  Zeus  and  bull,  Artemis  and  bear,  Aphrodite  and  dove,  and  many  other  exam- 
ples. In  such  cases  it  is  generally  useless  to  try  to  discover  a  resemblance  between 
the  character  of  the  god  and  that  of  the  associated  animal.  There  is  simply,  as  a  rule, 
a  coalescence  of  cults,  or  an  absorption  of  the  earlier  cult  in  the  later. 

3  The  particular  conditions  that  induced  this  cult  in  Egypt  escape  us.  See  the 
works  on  Egyptian  religion  by  Maspero,  Wiedemann.  Erman,  Stcindorff,  and  others. 

4  On  the  curious  attitude  of  medieval  Europe  toward  animals  as  legally  respon- 
sible beings  see  E.  P.  Evans,  The  Criminal  Prosecution  and  Capital  Punishment 
of  Animals. 


1  io     IXTR0DUCT10N  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

by  other  beings)  is  not  conceived  of  as  produced  out  of  nothing ; 
there  is  always  preexisting  material,  the  origin  of  which  is  not 
explained;  primitive  thought  seems  not  to  have  considered  the 
possibility  of  a  situation  in  which  nothing,  existed.  The  "  creation  " 
conceived  of  is  the  arrangement  of  existing  material  into  the  forms 
familiar  to  man — every  tribe  accounting  thus  for  its  own  environ- 
ment. The  origin  of  the  land,  of  mountains,  defiles,  lakes,  rivers, 
trees,  rocks,  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  wind  and  rain,  human  beings 
and  lower  animals,  and  sometimes  of  social  organizations  and 
"ceremonies,  is  explained  in  some  way  natural  to  the  thought  of 
the  time  and  place.  Not  all  these  details  occur  in  the  cosmog- 
ony of  every  tribe  or  clan,  but  the  purpose  of  every  cosmogony 
is  to  account  for  everything  in  the  origin  of  which  the  people 
are  interested. 

256.  The  creator  in  the  cosmogonies  known  to  us  is  not  always 
an  animal  —  he  is  sometimes  a  man,  sometimes  a  god ;  it  is  pos- 
sible, however,  that  human  and  divine  creators  are  the  successors 
of  original  animal  creators.  In  Central  Australia  the  production  of 
certain  natural  features  of  the  country  and  the  establishment  of 
certain  customs  are  ascribed  to  ancestors,  mythical  beings  of  the 
remote  past,  creatures  both  animal  and  human,  or  rather,  either 
animal  or  human  —  possibly  animals  moving  toward  the  anthro- 
pomorphic stage.1  However  this  may  be,  there  are  instances  in 
which  the  creator  is  an  animal  pure  and  simple,  though,  of  course, 
endowed  with  extraordinary  powers.  The  beast  to  which  the  demi- 
urgic function  is  assigned  is  selected,  it  would  seem,  on  the  ground 
of  some  peculiar  skill  or  other  power  it  is  supposed  to  possess; 
naturally  the  reason  for  the  choice  is  not  always  apparent.  For 
the  Ainu  the  demiurge  is  the  water  wagtail ; 2  for  the  Navahos 
and  in  California,3  the  coyote  or  prairie  wolf ;  among  the  Lenni- 
Lenape',  the  wolf.4   Various  animals  —  as  elephants,  boars,  turtles, 

1  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  chap.  x.  Two  super- 
human creators  are  said  to  have  transformed  themselves  into  lizards  (ibid.  p.  sSoff.). 

2  Batchelor,  The  Ainu,  p.  35  ff. 

3  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  pp.  80,  223  ;  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  263. 

^  •>  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  269  ;  cf.  article  "  Animals  "  in  Hastings, 
Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


EARLY  CULTS  III 

snakes  —  arc  supposed  to  bear  the  world  on  their  backs.  The 
grounds  of  such  opinions,  resting  on  remote  social  conditions. 
are  obscure. 

257.  Though,  in  early  stadia  of  culture,  animals  are  universally 
revered  as  in  a  sort  divine,  there  are  few  recorded  instances  of 
actual  worship  offered  them.1  Whether  the  Bushmen  and  the  Hot- 
tentots worship  the  mantis  (the  Bushman  god  Cagn)  as  animal  is 
not  quite  clear.'2  The  bear,  when  it  is  ceremonially  slain,  is  treated 
by  the  Ainu  as  divine  —  it  is  approached  with  food  and  prayer, 
but  only  for  the  specific  purpose  of  asking  that  it  will  speak  well 
of  them  to  its  divine  kin  and  will  return  to  earth  to  be  slain.  The 
Zuni  cult  of  the  turtle  and  the  Californian  worship  of  the  bird  called 
panes 3  present  similar  features.  The  non-Aryan  Santhals  of  Bengal 
are  said  to  offer  divine  worship  to  the, tiger.4  Such  worship  appears 
to  be  paid  to  the  snake  by  the  Naga  tribes  and  the  Gonds  of  India, 
and  by  the  Hopi  of  North  America.5 

258.  In  these  and  similar  cases  it  is  sometimes  difficult  to  say 
whether  the  animal  is  worshiped  in  its  own  person  merely,  or  as 
the  embodiment  or  representative  of  a  god  or  of  ancestors.  The 
usages  in  question  are  almost  entirely  confined  to  low  tribes,  and 
disappear  with  the  advance  of  civilization ;  wild  animals  are  ban- 
ished from  society  and  cease  to  be  sacred,  and  the  recollection  of 
their  early  character  survives  only  in  their  mythological  attachment 
to  deities  proper.  For  a  different  reason  domesticated  animals  lose 
their  sacredness  —  they  become  merely  servants  of  men.  The 
Egyptian  cult  of  the  bull  is  the  best-attested  instance  of  actual 
worship  of  a  domestic  animal,  and  parallels  to  this  it  is  hard  to 
find ;  the  Todas,  for  example,  for  whom  the  buffalo  is  the  central 
sacred  object,  do  not  now  pay  worship  to  the  animal  —  they  may 
have  done  so  in  former  times. 


1  See  above,  §  253,  for  the  Egyptian  cult. 

2  References  to  Stow's  Native  Races  of  South  Africa  and  Merensky's  Beitrdge 
are  given  in  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  i,  522. 

3  Cushing,  in  The  Century  Magazine,  1883;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  243  f. 

4  Crooke,  Popular  Religion  and  Folklore  of  Northern  India,  ii,  213. 

5  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  pp.  539,   527;     Crooke,  op.  cit. ;    Fevvkes,  "The 
Winter  Solstice  Ceremony  at  Walpi,"  p.  17  ff. 


112     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

259.  The  sacredness  of  animals,  and  the  fact  that  they  are  re- 
garded as  embodying  the  souls  of  things  and  human  beings,  have 
led  to  a  coalescence  of  their  cults  with  other  religious  observances. 
They  are  abundantly  employed  in  magical  procedures  and  in  sacri- 
fices ;  they  are  often  identified  with  spirits  of  vegetation,  any  locally 
revered  animal  being  chosen  for  this  purpose;  they  are  brought 
into  connection  with  astral  objects  and  their  forms  are  fancifully 
seen  in  sun,  moon,  and  constellations;  they  play  a  great  role 
in  apotropaic  and  purificatory  ceremonies;  and  they  appear  in 
myths  of  all  sorts,1  especially  in  the  histories  of  gods. 

260.  But,  though  they  are  in  many  cases  regarded  as  tutelary 
beings,  it  is  doubtful  whether  they  ever  develop  into  anthropo- 
morphic deities.2  The  creation  of  such  deities  followed  a  different 
line  3  and  dispensed  with  the  lower  quasi-divine  forms.  Such  man- 
like attributes  as  beasts  were  supposed  to  have  were  taken  up  into 
the  distincter  and  nobler  conceptions  of  tribal  gods  to  whom  beasts 
were  more  and  more  subordinated.  The  latter  were  allegorized 
and  spiritualized,  and  came  to  serve  merely  as  material  for  poetry. 

261.  Yet  beast  worship,  such  as  it  was  and  is,  has  played  an 
important  part  in  religious  development.  It  has  furnished  a  point 
of  crystallization  for  early  ideas,  and  has  supplied  interesting  objects 
in  which  man's  demand  for  superhuman  companionship  could  find 
satisfaction.4  It  has  disappeared  when  it  has  been  no  longer  needed. 

Plants 

262.  The  cult  of  plants  has  been  as  widespread  as  that  of  animals, 
and,  if  its  role  in  the  history  of  religion  has  been  less  important  than 
that  of  the  latter,  this  is  because  plants  show  less  definite  signs  of 
life  than  animals  and  enter  less  intimately  than  they  into  the  social 

i  For  a  fanciful  connection  between  the  sun-myth  and  the  spider  see  Frobenius, 
Childhood  of  Man,  chap,  xxiii. 

2  A  somewhat  vague  Naga  (snake)  being  of  this  sort  is  noted  (Hopkins,  Religions 
of  India,  p.  539).  The  relation  between  the  Australian  supernatural  being  Bunjil  (or 
Punjil)  and  the  eagle-hawk  is  not  clear.  Cf.  Howitt,  Native  Tribes  of  South-East  Aus- 
tralia, Index;  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  Index. 

3  See  below,  §  635  f. 

4  A  special  form  of  man's  relations  with  animals  is  considered  below  under 
"  Totemism." 


EARLY  CULTS  113 

interests  of  man.  But,  like  all  other  things,  they  are  regarded  by 
early  man  as  living,  as  possessing  a  nature  similar  to  that  of  man, 
and  as  having  power  to  work  good  or  ill.  Trees  arc  represented  as 
thinking,  speaking,  entering  into  marriage  relations,  and  in  general 
doing  whatever  intelligent  beings  can  do.  Through  thousands  of 
years  in  the  period  before  the  dawn  of  written  history  man  was 
brought  into  constant  contact  with  the  vegetable  world,  and  learned 
by  experience  to  distinguish  between  plants  that  were  beneficial  and 
those  that  were  harmful.  His  observation  created  an  embryonic 
science  of  medicine,  and  his  imagination  an  embryonic  religious  cult. 

263.  The  value  of  certain  vegetable  products  (fruits,  nuts,  wild 
plants)  as  food  must  have  become  known  at  a  very  early  time, 
and  these  would  naturally  be  offered  to  the  extrahuman  Powers. 
At  a  later  time,  when  cereals  were  cultivated,  they  formed  an  im- 
portant part  of  sacrificial  offerings,  and  were  held  —  as,  for  example, 
among  the  Greeks  and  the  Hebrews  —  to  have  piacular  efficacy. 

264.  Among  the  discoveries  of  the  early  period  was  that  of  the 
intoxicating  quality  of  certain  plants  —  a  quality  that  came  to  play 
a  prominent  role  in  religious  life.  Valued  at  first,  probably,  for  the 
agreeable  sensations  they  produced,  such  plants  were  later  sup- 
posed to  possess  magical  power,  to  exert  a  mysterious  influence  on 
the  mind,  and  to  be  the  source  or  medium  of  superhuman  communi- 
cations. Thus  employed  by  magicians  they  were  connected  with 
the  beginnings  of  religious  ecstasy  and  prophecy.  Their  magical 
power  belongs  to  them  primarily  as  living  things,  but  came  to  be 
attributed  to  extrahuman  beings. 

265.  Plants  as  living  things  were  supposed  to  possess  souls.1 
Probably  the  soul  was  conceived  of  at  first  as  simply  the  vital 
principle,  and  the  power  of  the  plant  was  thought  of  as  similar 

1  For  example,  in  Sumatra,  offerings  are  made  to  the  "  soul  of  the  rice  "  ;  there  is 
fear  of  frightening  the  rice-spirit,  and  ceremonies  are  performed  in  its  honor  :  see  W'il- 
ken,  Het  Animisme  bij  de  Volken  ran  den  Indischen  Arcliifcl;  Kruyt,  De  Rijsimocder 
ran  den  Indischen  Archipel,  389.  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  prohibition  of 
yeast  in  the  Hebrew  mazzot  (unleavened  bread)  festival  may  have  come  originally 
from  fear  of  frightening  the  spirit  of  the  grain.  It  may  have  been,  however,  merely 
the  retention  of  an  old  custom  (if  the  grain  was  eaten  originally  without  yeast), 
which  later  (as  sometimes  happened  in  the  case  of  old  customs)  was  made  sacred 
by  its  age,  was  adopted  into  the  religious  code,  and  so  became  obligatory. 


114     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

to  the  power  of  an  animal  or  any  other  living  thing.  In  the  course 
of  time  this  soul,  the  active  principle,  was  distinguished  from  the 
vital  principle,  was  isolated  and  regarded  as  an  independent  being 
dwelling  in -the  plant.  To  it  all  the  powers  of  the  latter  were 
ascribed,  and  it  became  a  friend  or  an  enemy,  an  object  of  wor- 
ship or  of  dread.1 

266.  This  difference  of  attitude  on  man's  part  toward  different 
plants  probably  showed  itself  at  an  early  period.  Those  that  were 
found  to  be  noxious  he  would  avoid  ;  the  useful  he  would  enter  into 
relations  with,  though  on  this  point  for  very  early  times  there  is  in 
the  nature  of  the  case  little  information.2  Unfriendly  or  demonic 
spirits  of  plants  are  recognized  by  savage  man  in  certain  forests 
whose  awe-inspiring  gloom,  disease-breeding  vapors,  and  wild  beasts 
repel  and  frighten  him.  Demons  identified  with  plants  or  dwelling 
in  them  are  of  the  same  nature  as  animal  demons,  and  have  been 
dealt  with  in  the  same  way  as  these.3 

267.  The  progress  of  society  brought  men  into  association  with 
useful  plants,  such  as  medicinal  and  edible  herbs,  and  fruit-bearing 
and  shade-giving  trees ;  these,  conceived  of  as  inhabited  by  anthro- 
pomorphic spirits,  fulfilled  all  the  functions  that  attach  to  friendly 
animals.  They  became  guardians  and  allies,  totems  and  ancestors.4 
Several  of  the  Central  Australian  totems  are  plants,  and  form  part 
of  the  mythical  ancestral  population  constructed  by  the  imagination 
or  ethnographic  science  of  the  people.5  In  Samoa  a  plant  is  often 
the  incarnation  of  a  spirit  friendly  to  a  particular  family6  —  a 
conception  that  is  not  improbably  a  development  from  an  earlier 
view  that  a  certain  plant  had  a  special  relation  to  a  certain  clan.7 


1  This  conception  survives  in  the  expressions  "  spirit  of  wine,"  etc.,  and  Cassio's 
"  invisible  spirit  of  wine  "  easily  passes  into  a  "  devil." 

2  This  distinction  is  made  in  a  somewhat  formal  way  by  the  Ainu,  a  very  rude 
people  (Batchelor,  The  Ainu,  chap,  xxxiii). 

3  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  p.  132  f. 

4  Frazer,  Toiemism  and  Exogamy,  Index,  s.w.  totems,  ancestors. 

5  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native    Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  pp.  112,  116.  Many 
other  plant  totems  are  mentioned  by  Frazer  in  his  Toiemism  and  Exogamy. 

6  Turner,  Samoa,  pp.  32,  39,  43,  72. 

"  This  relation  was  not  necessarily  totemic  —  it  may  have  been  of  a  general  char- 
acter, of  which  totemism  is  a  special  form. 


EARLY  CULTS  115 

In  general,  a  plant  important  in  a  given  region  (as,  for  example, 
the  tobacco  plant  in  North  America)  is  likely  to  be  invested  with 
a  sacred  character. 

268.  Trees,  by  reason  of  their  greater  dignity  (size,  beauty,  pro- 
tective character),  have  generally  been  singled  out  as  special  cultic 
centers.1  A  great  tree  sometimes  served  as  a  boundary  mark  or 
signpost ;  under  trees  chiefs  of  clans  sat  to  decide  disputes.  Thus 
invested  with  importance  as  a  sort  of  political  center  as  well  as  the 
abode  of  a  spirit,  a  tree  naturally  became  a  shrine  and  an  asylum.2 
In  India  and  Greece,  and  among  the  ancient  Celts  and  Germans, 
the  gods  were  worshiped  in  groves,  by  the  Canaanites  and  He- 
brews "under  every  green  tree."  To  cut  down  a  sacred  tree  was 
a  sacrilege,  and  the  spirit  of  the  tree  was  believed  to  avenge 
the  crime.3 

269.  As  might  be  expected,  there  is  hardly  a  species  of  tree  that 
has  not  been  held  sacred  by  some  group  of  men.  The  Nagas  and 
other  tribes  of  Northeast  India  regard  all  plants  as  sacred,4  and 
every  village  has  its  sacred  tree.  In  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  it  is 
said,  there  were  hundreds  of  trees  looked  on  as  invested  with 
more  or  less  sanctity.  The  oak  was  revered  in  some  parts  of 
Greece,  and  among  the  Romans  and  the  Celts.  The  cult  of  par- 
ticular species,  as  the  pipal  (Fiats  religiosd),  the  vata  or  banyan 
(Fiats  Indica),  the  karam  and  others,  has  been  greatly  system- 
atized in  India.5 

270.  Vegetable  spirits  in  some  cases  have  developed  into  real 
gods.  A  notable  example  of  such  growth  is  furnished  by  the  history 
of  the  intoxicating  soma  plant,  which  in  the  Rig-Veda  is  represented 
not  only  as  the  inspiring  drink  of  the  gods  but  as  itself  a  deity, 
doing  things  that  are  elsewhere  ascribed  to  Indra,  Pushan,  and  other 

1  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  i,  179  ff. 

2  Cf.  articles  "Asylum"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  and 
Jewish  Encyclopedia. 

3  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  pp.  133,  195  ;  Hopkins,  in  Journal 
of  the  .  Xmerican  Oriental  Society,  xxx  (1910),  4,  p.  352. 

4  Miss  Godden,  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xxvi,  186  ff. 

5  W.  Crooke,  Popular  Religion  and  Folklore  of  Northern  India,  new  ed.,  ii,  85  ff. ; 
cf.  Hopkins,  "Mythological  Aspects  of  Trees,  etc.,"  in  Journal  of  the  American 
Oriental  Society,  September,  19 10. 


116     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

well-established  deities.1  The  spirit,  coming  to  be  regarded  as  an 
anthropomorphic  person,  under  peculiar  circumstances  assumes  the 
character  of  a  god.  A  similar  development  appears  in  the  Iranian 
haoma,  and  the  cultic  identity  of  soma  and  haoma  shows  that  the 
deification  of  the  plant  took  place  in  the  early  Aryan  period.2 

271.  Another  example  has  been  supposed  to  be  furnished  by 
corn-spirits.  The  importance  of  cereal  crops  for  human  life  gave 
them  a  prominent  position  in  the  cult  of  agricultural  communities. 
The  decay  and  revival  of  the  corn  was  an  event  of  prime  signifi- 
cance, and  appears  to  have  been  interpreted  as  the  death  and  resur- 
rection of  the  spirit  that  was  the  life  of  the  crop.  Such  is  the  idea 
in  the  modern  popular  customs  collected  by  Mannhardt  and  Frazer.3 
The  similarity  between  these  ceremonies  and  those  connected  with 
the  Phoenician  Tammuz  (Adonis)  and  the  Phrygian  Attis  makes  it 
probable  that  the  two  are  based  on  the  same  ideas ;  that  is,  that 
Adonis  and  Attis  (and  so  also  Osiris  and  Ishtar)  were  deities  of 
vegetation.  This,  however,  does  not  prove  that  they  were  devel- 
oped out  of  spirits  of  vegetation ;  they  may  have  been  deities  charged 
with  the  care  of  crops.4  The  Phoenician  name  Adon  is  merely  a 
title  ('  lord ')  that  might  be  given  to  any  god  ;  he  whom  the  Greeks 
called  Adonis  was  a  Syrian  local  deity,  identical  in  origin  with  the 
Babylonian  Tammuz,  and  associated  in  worship  with  Astarte,  whom 
the  Greeks  identified  with  their  Aphrodite. 

272.  A  sacred  tree  often  stood  by  a  shrine;  that  is,  probably, 
the  shrine  was  put  in  the  spot  made  sacred  by  a  tree,  and  a  ritual 
connection  between  the  two  was  thus  established.  Later,  when  a 
shrine  for  any  reason  (in  consequence  of  a  theophany,  for  example) 
was  built  where  there  was  no  tree,  its  place  was  supplied  by  a 
wooden  post,  which  inherited  the  cultic  value  of  a  sacred  tree.  In 
the  Canaanite  cult,  which  was  adopted  by  the  Hebrews,  the  sacred 
post  (called  "ashera")  stood  by  the  side  of  every  shrine,  and  was 

1  Rig-Veda,  ix  al. ;  Muir,  Original  Sanskrit  Texts,  v;  Hillebrandt,  Vedische 
?lythologie,  i,  450  ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  112  ff. 

2  Spiegel,  Eranische  Alterthwnskundc,  ii,  114  ff . ;  Tiele-Gehrich,  Gcschichtc  dcr 
Religion  im  Altertum,  ii,  ii,  p.  234  ff. 

3  Mannhardt,  Baumkultus  and  Antike  Wald-und  Feldkulte;  Frazer,  Golden  Bough, 
Index,  s.v.  Corn-spirit.  4  Cf.  below,  §  75 1  ff. 


EARLY  CULTS  117 

denounced  by  the  prophets  as  an  accompaniment  of  foreign  (that  is, 
non-Yahwistic)  worship.1  The  transition  from  tree  to  post  is  illus- 
trated, perhaps,  by  the  conventionalized  form  of  trees  frequent  on 
Babylonian  seal  cylinders.2  How  far  the  sacred  post  was  an  object 
of  worship  by  the  people  we  have  no  means  of  knowing ;  but  by 
the  more  intelligent,  doubtless,  it  came  to  be  regarded  simply  as  a 
symbol,  a  sign  of  the  presence  of  a  deity,  and  was,  in  so  far,  in  the 
same  category  with  images.3 

273.  It  is  not  impossible  that  totem  posts  may  be  connected  with 
original  totem  trees  or  other  sacred  trees.  A  tree  as  totem  would 
naturally  be  the  object  of  some  sort  of  cult,  and  when  it  took  the 
form  of  a  post  or  pole,  would  have  totemic  symbols  carved  on  it. 
Oftener,  probably,  it  was  the  sacred  pole  of  a  village  (itself  de- 
scended from  a  sacred  tree)  that  would  be  adorned  with  totemic 
figures,  as  among  the  Indians  of  Northwestern  America.4  In  all 
such  cases  there  is  a  coalescence  of  totemism  and  tree  worship. 

274.  It  was  natural  in  early  times,  when  most  men  lived  in  for- 
ests, which  supplied  all  their  needs,  that  trees  should  be  looked  on 
as  intimately  connected  with  human  life.  A  tree  might  be  regarded 
as  in  itself  an  independent  personality,  having,  of  course,  a  body 
and  a  soul,  but  not  as  dependent  on  an  isolated  spirit.  A  group  of 
men  might  think  itself  descended  from  a  tree  —  a  conception  that 
may  have  been  widespread,  though  there  is  little  direct  evidence  of 
its  existence.5  Indirect  evidence  of  such  a  view  is  found  in  the  cus- 
tom of  marrying  girls  to  trees,6  and  in  the  belief  in  "  trees  of  life," 
which  are  sometimes  connected  with  individual  men  in  such  a  way 
that  when  the  tree  or  a  part  of  it  is  destroyed  the  man  dies,  as  in 
the  case  of  Meleager  whose  life  depended  on  the  preservation  of  a 
piece  of  wood,7  the  representative,  probably,  of  a  tree,  and  the  priest 

1  The  connection  between  such  posts  and  the  North-Semitic  goddess  Ashera  is 
uncertain.  -  Ward,  Seal-cylinders  of  \\  estern  .  tsia. 

3  Cf.  the  suggestion  of  A.  Reville  (in  his  Prolegomenes  de  Vhistoire  des  religions) 
that  images  arose  in  part  from  natural  woods  bearing  a  fancied  resemblance  to  the 
human  form. 

4  Boas,  The  Kwakiutl\  Swanton,  "Seattle  Totem  Pole,"  in  Journal  of  American 
Folklore,  vol.  xviii,  no.  69  (April,  1905).  ''  See  below,  "Totemism,"  §  449  f. 

6  Crooke,  Popular  Religion  and  Folk/ore  of  Northern  India,  ii,  115  ff. 

7  Pausanias,  x,  31,  4  ;  Roscher,  Lexikon,  article  "  Meleagros." 


118     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

of  Nemi  whose  life  was  bound  up  in  the  "golden  bough"1;  some- 
times the  tree  has  a  magical  power  of  conferring  life  on  whoever 
eats  of  its  fruit,  as  in  the  case  of  the  tree  of  Eden.2 

275.  These  stories  involve  the  conception  of  blood-kinship  be- 
tween man  and  tree.  Closely  related  to  the  "  tree  of  life"  is  the 
"  tree  of  knowledge "  —  life  is  knowledge  and  knowledge  is  life.  In 
the  original  form  of  the  story  in  Genesis  there  was  only  one  tree  — 
the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil 3  —  whose  fruit,  if  eaten, 
made  one  the  equal  of  the  gods ; 4  that  is,  the  tree  (in  the  original 
form  of  the  conception,  in  remote  times)  was  allied  in  nature  (that 
is,  in  blood)  to  gods  and  to  men,  so  that  whoever  partook  of  its 
substance  shared  its  attribute  of  knowledge  in  sharing  its  life,  and 
the  command  not  to  eat  of  it  was  due  apparently  to  Yahweh's  un- 
willingness that  man  should  equal  the  gods  in  knowledge.  The 
serpent-god,  who  belongs  to  the  inner  divine  circle,  but  for  some 
unexplained  reason  is  hostile  to  the  god  of  the  garden,5  reveals 
the  secret. 

276.  Probably,  also,  it  is  from  this  general  order  of  ideas  that 
the  conception  of  the  cosmic  tree  has  sprung.  The  Scandinavian 
Yggdrasil  is  the  source  of  life  to  all  things  and  represents  also 
wisdom ;  though  the  details  may  contain  Christian  elements,  the 
general  conception  of  the  world  as  a  tree  or  as  nourished  by  a 
tree  is  probably  old.6  The  same  conception  appears  in  the  cosmic 
tree  of  India.7  Such  quasi-philosophical  ideas  of  the  unity  of  the 
life  of  the  world  suppose,  doubtless,  a  relatively  advanced  stage  of 
culture,  but  they  go  back  to  the  simple  belief  that  the  tree  is  en- 
dowed with  life  and  is  a  source  of  life  for  men.  The  transition 
to  the  cosmic  conception  may  be  found  in  those  quasi-divine 
trees  that  grant  wishes  and  endow  their  friends  with  wisdom 
and  life. 

1  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  iii,  391  ff. 

2  Gen.  iii;  cf.  Hopkins,  in  Journal  of  (he  American  Oriental  Society,  September, 
1910.  Whether  the  golden  apples  of  the  Hesperides  had  the  life-giving  quality  is 
doubtful. 

3  This  appears  from  a  comparison  of  Gen.  iii,  3  with  ii,  17.  4  Gen.  iii,  5,  22. 

5  He  is,  perhaps,  a  diminished  and  conventionalized  form  of  the  old  chaos  dragon. 

6  On  the  various  nam^s  and  characters  of  this  cosmic  tree  see  Saussaye,  Religion 
of  the  Teutons,  p.  347  ff.  7  Rig-Veda,  x,  81,  4. 


EARLY  CULTS 


119 


277.  The  diviriatory  function  of  trees  follows  as  a  matter  of 
course  from  their  divine  nature  (whether  this  was  regarded  as 
innate  or  as  due  to  an  indwelling  spirit).  Their  counsel  was  sup- 
posed to  be  expressed  by  the  rustling  of  their  leaves,1  or  in  some 
way  that  was  interpreted  by  priests  or  priestesses  (as  at  Dodona 
and  elsewhere)  or  by  diviners  (so,  perhaps,  the  Canaanite  "  tere- 
binth of  the  diviners  ").2  The  predictions  of  the  Cumaean  sibyl 
were  said  to  be  written  on  leaves  that  were  whirled  away  by  the 
wind  and  had  to  be  gathered  and  interpreted.  To  what  method 
of  divination  this  points  is  not  clear  —  possibly  to  supposed  indi- 
cations in  the  markings  of  the  leaves ;  it  may,  however,  be  merely 
an  imaginative  statement  of  the  difficulty  of  discovering  the  sibyl's 
meaning.3 

278.  The  passage  from  the  conception  of  the  tree  as  a  divine 
thing  or  person  (necessarily  anthropomorphic)  to  the  view  that  it 
was  the  abode  of  a  spirit  was  gradual,  and  it  is  not  always  easy 
to  distinguish  the  two  stages  one  from  the  other.  The  tree-spirits, 
in  the  nature  of  the  case  very  numerous,  were  not  distinguished 
by  individual  names,  as  the  trees  were  not  so  distinguished.4  The 
spirits  resident  in  the  divine  trees  invoked  in  the  Vedas  are  power- 
ful, but  have  not  definite  personality,  and  it  is  hard  to  say  whether 
it  is  the  tree  or  the  spirit  that  is  worshiped.  The  Indian  tree-spirits 
called  Nagas  appear  to  be  always  nameless,  and  are  not  mentioned 
in  the  list  of  deities  that  pay  reverence  to  the  Buddha  (in  the  Maha 
Samaya).5  The  large  number  of  trees  accounted  sacred  in  Babylonia 
were  doubtless  believed  to  be  inhabited  by  spirits,  but  to  no  one 
of  these  is  a  name  given. 

279.  Thus  the  divine  tree  with  its  nameless  spirit  stands  in  a 
class  apart  from  that  of  the  gods  proper.  A  particular  tree,  it  is 
true,  may  be  connected  with  a  particular  god,  but  such  a  connec- 
tion is  generally,  if  not  always,  to  be  traced  (as  in  the  parallel  case 
of  animals  6)  to  an  accidental  collocation  of  cults.  When  a  deity  has 
become  the  numen  of  a  tribe,  his  worship  will  naturally  coalesce 

1  2  Sam.  v,  24.  2  Judg.  ix,  37.  3  See  below,  §  935  ff. 

4  This  is  the  case  with  all  spirits  that  social  needs  do  not  force  man  to  give 
names  to.  5  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhist  India,  p.  232.  6  See  above,  §  252  f. 


120     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

with  the  veneration  felt  by  the  tribe  for  some  tree,  which  will 
then  be  conceived  of  as  sacred  to  the  god.  Such,  doubtless,  was 
the  history  of  the  oak  of  Dodona,  sacred  to  Zeus;  when  Zeus 
was  established  as  deity  of  the  place,  the  revered  tree  had  to  be 
brought  into  relation  with  him,  and  this  relation  could  only  be  one 
of  subordination  —  the  tree  became  the  medium  by  which  the  god 
communicated  his  will.  There  was  then  no  need  of  the  spirit  of 
the  tree,  which  accordingly  soon  passed  away ;  the  tree  had  lost 
its  spiritual  divine  independence.  The  god  who  is  said  to  have 
appeared  to  Moses  in  a  burning  bush,  and  is  described  as  dwelling 
in  the  bush,  is  a  local  deity,  the  numen  loci,  later  identified  with 
Yahweh,  or  called  an  angel.1  That  a  tree  is  sacred  to  a  god  means 
only  that  it  has  a  claim  to  respect  based  on  its  being  the  property 
or  instrument  of  a  god. 

280.  While  the  tree-spirit  has  undoubtedly  played  a  great  role 
in  early  religious  history,  there  is  not  decisive  evidence  of  its  ever 
having  developed  into  a  true  god,  with  name,  distinct  personality, 
and  distinct  functions.2  There  are  many  Greek  and  Roman  titles 
that  connect  gods  with  trees,3  but  these  may  be  explained  in  the 
way  suggested  above :  Zeus  Endendros  is  a  god  dwelling  in  a  tree, 
but  the  tree  is  only  an  abode,  not  a  god,  and  the  god  Zeus  does 
not  come  from  the  tree  —  rather  two  distinct  sacred  things  have 
been  brought  together  and  fused  into  a  unity,  or  the  tree  is  a  rude, 
incipient  image.  The  Dionysos  hermes-figures  may  be  explained 
in  the  same  way.4 

281.  It  appears  to  be  the  aloofness  of  trees  that  prevents  their 
becoming  gods ;  they  are  revered  and  worshiped,  but  without  be- 
coming personalities.  Babylonian  seal  engravings  and  wall  pictures 
often  represent  a  tree  before  which  men  or  higher  beings  stand 
in  adoration ;  according  to  Maspero  5  there  was  actual  worship  of 
trees  in  Egypt,  and  similar  cults  are  found  among  the  wild  tribes 
of  India.6    Adoration,  however,  does  not  necessarily  imply  a  god ; 

1  Ex.  iii,  2  ff. ;  Deut.  xxxiii,  16  ;  Acts  vii,  30,  35. 

2  See  Journal  of  'the  American  Oriental  Society,  xxx,  353  f.,  for  possible  examples. 

3  A  list  of  such  titles  is  given  by  C.  Boetticher  in  his  Baumkultus  der  Hcllenen 
tend  Romer,  chap.  iv.  4  Dionysos  is  a  bull-god  as  well  as  a  tree-god. 

5  Dawn  of  Civilization,  p.  12.  6  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  533. 


EARLY  CULTS  121 

the  Buddhist's  worship  under  the  bo-tree  is  not  directed  to  any 
being ;  it  is  only  the  recognition  of  something  that  he  thinks 
worth}-  of  reverence.1 

282.  The  cult  of  the  corn-spirit  is  referred  to  above,2  and  doubt 
is  there  expressed  as  to  whether  such  a  spirit  has  grown  into  a 
true  god.  The  question  is  confessedly  a  difficult  one  on  account 
of  the  absence  of  full  data  for  the  period  involved.  The  chief 
ground  for  the  doubt  as  to  the  development  in  question  lies  in 
what  we  know  of  early  gods.  The  term  '  Adon,'  as  is  remarked 
above,  is  the  Phoenician  title  of  the  local  deity.  The  origin  of  such 
deities  is  involved  in  the  obscurity  of  the  remote  past,  but  they  arc, 
each  in  his  community,  universal  powers  ;  their  functions  embrace 
all  that  their  communities  desire,  and  they  represent  each  the  total 
life  of  a  people.  It  is  the  general  rule  that  any  popular  custom 
may  be  introduced  into  the  cult  of  the  local  god ;  of  such  sort 
of  procedure  there  are  many  examples.  In  the  case  under  con- 
sideration the  god  may  have  become  the  hero  of  a  ceremony  with 
which  he  had  originally  nothing  to  do,  as  the  Hebrews  when  they 
entered  Canaan  connected  Canaanite  festivals  with  their  national 
god,  Yahweh,  and  later  a  cult  of  the  wilderness  deity  Azazel3 
was  adopted  and  modified  by  the  Yahwist  leaders.  Various  cults 
attached  themselves  to  the  worship  of  Zeus,  Apollo,  Dionysos,  and 
other  Greek  deities.4 

283.  A  similar  explanation  may  be  given  of  the  ceremonies  of 
death  and  resurrection  connected  with-  Attis  and  Osiris.  Of  Attis 
we  have  only  late  accounts,  and  do  not  know  his  early  history. 
Osiris  is  an  old  underground  deity  (later  the  judge  of  the  Under- 
world), with  functions  that  included  more  than  the  vivification  of 
vegetation,  and  the  absorption  of  the  corn-spirit  into  his  cult  would 
be  natural.  The  collocation  of  a  male  with  a  female  deity,  com- 
mon to  the  three  cults,  may  be  merely  the  elaboration  of  the 
myth  in  accordance  with  human  social  usage  (the  dead  deity  is 
mourned    by    his    consort).5     The    descent    of    Ishtar   has    been 

1  On  the  Soma  cult  see  above,  §  270.  -  §  271.  3  Lev.  xvi. 

4  Gruppe,  Culte  und  Mythen  ;  Roscher,  Lexikon.  Cf.  the  developed  cults  of 
Vishnu  and  Civa.  5  On  Osiris  and  I  sis  see  below,  §  728  f. 


122      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

interpreted  of  the  weakening  of  the  sun's  heat  in  winter ;  but  as 
she  is  obviously  a  deity  of  fertility  and,  in  her  descent,  disappears 
entirely  from  among  men,  while  the  sun  does  not  disappear  en- 
tirely, she  rather,  in  this  story,  represents  or  is  connected  with  the 
decay  and  rebirth  of  vegetation. 

284.  It  is  thus  possible  that,  though  many  ancient  ceremonies 
stand  in  relation  to  the  corn-spirit  and  also  to  a  god,  the  explana- 
tion of  this  fact  is  not  that  the  spirit  has  grown  into  a  god,  but 
that  it  has  coalesced  with  a  god.  In  all  such  explanations,  how- 
ever, our  ignorance  of  the  exact  processes  of  ancient  thought 
must  be  borne  in  mind. 

285.  Trees  have  been  widely  credited  with  the  power  of  bestow- 
ing blessings  of  all  sorts.  But,  like  animals,  they  rarely  receive 
formal  worship;1  the  reason  for  this  is  similar  to  that  suggested 
above 2  in  the  case  of  animals.  The  coalescence,  spoken  of  above, 
of  tree  ceremonies  with  cults  of  fully  developed  gods  is  not  un- 
common, and  trees  figure  largely  in  mythical  divine  histories. 

Stones  and  Mountains 

286.  Like  all  other  objects  stones  have  been  regarded,  in  all 
parts  of  the  world,  as  living,  as  psychologically  anthropomorphic 
(that  is,  as  having  soul,  emotion,  will),  and,  in  some  cases,  as  pos- 
sessing superhuman  powers.3  The  term  *  sacred,'  as  applied  to 
them,  may  mean  either  that  they  are  in  themselves  endowed  with 
peculiar  powers,  or  that  they  have  special  relations  with  divine 
beings ;  the  first  meaning  is  the  earlier,  the  second  belongs  to  a 
period  when  the  lesser  revered  objects  have  been  subordinated  to 
the  greater. 

287.  The  basis  of  the  special  belief  in  their  sacredness  was, 
probably,  the  mystery  of  their  forms  and  qualities,  their  hardness, 
brilliancy,  solidity.  They  seem  to  have  been  accepted,  in  the 
earliest  known  stages   of  human  life,  as   ultimate   facts.    When 

1  Some  instances  of  worship  are  given  in  Frazer's  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  i,  1S1,  1S9, 
191.  Frazer  sometimes  uses  the  term  '  tree  worship '  where  all  that  is  meant  is  re- 
spect for  trees  as  powerful  things.  2  See  §  253  ff. 

3  See  Revue  de  Vhistoiredes  religions,  1SS1. 


EARLY  CULTS  1 23 

explanations  of  their  presence  were  sought,  they  were  supposed 
to  have  been  deposited  by  ancestors  or  other  beings,  sometimes 
as  depositories  of  their  souls.1  Meteorites,  having  fallen  from  the 
sky,  needed  no  other  explanation.  Popular  science  (that  is,  popu- 
lar imagination),  perhaps  from  fancied  resemblances  to  the  human 
form,  assumed  of  some  stones  that  they  were  human  beings  turned 
to  stone,  and  stories  grew  up  to  account  for  the  metamorphoses. 
In  many  different  ways,  according  to  differences  of  physical  sur- 
roundings and  of  social  conceptions,  men  accounted  for  such  of 
these  objects  as  interested  them  particularly. 

288.  That  stones  were  believed  to  be  alive  and  akin  to  men  is 
shown  by  the  stories  of  the  birth  of  men  and  gods  from  stones,2 
the  turning  of  human  beings  to  stone  (Niobe,  Lot's  wife),  the 
accounts  of  their  movements  (rocks  in  Brittany).3 

289.  Small  stones,  especially  such  as  are  of  peculiar  shape,  are 
in  many  parts  of  the  world  regarded  as  having  magic  power ; 
the  peculiarity  of  shape  seems  mysterious  and  therefore  connected 
with  power.  Doubtless  accidental  circumstances,  such  as  the  occur- 
rence of  a  piece  of  good  fortune,  have  often  endowed  a  particular 
stone  with  a  reputation  for  power.  Certain  forms,  especially  flat 
disks  with  a  hole  in  the  center,  have  preserved  this  reputation 
down  to  the  present  day.  The  Roman  lapis  manalis  is  said  by 
Festus  to  have  been  employed  to  get  rain.4 

290.  Magical  stones  were,  doubtless,  believed  to  possess  souls. 
In  accordance  with  the  general  law  such  stones  and  others  were 
regarded    later   as   the   abodes   of    independent   movable   spirits.5 

1  So  in  Central  Australia  (Spencer  and  Gillcn,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia, 
pp.  123  f.,  137). 

2  The  rock  whence  came  the  stones  thrown  by  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha  (the  origin 
of  the  human  race)  also  gave  birth  to  Agdistis  mugitibus  editis  multis, ,  according  to 
Arnobius,  Adversus  Xationcs,  v,  5.  Mithra's  birth  from  a  rock  (Roscher,  Lexikon) 
is  perhaps  a  bit  of  late  poetical  or  philosophical  imagery. 

3  For  various  powers  of  stones,  involving  many  human  interests,  see  indexes  in 
Tylor's  Primitive  Culture,  Frazer's  Golden  Bough,  and  llartland's  Primitive  Pater- 
nity, s.v.  Stone  or  Stones. 

4  Festus,  p.  2  ;  see  the  remarks  of  Marquardt,  R'dmische  Staaisverwaltwig ;  Aust, 
Religion  der  Romer,  p.  121  ;  and  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  p.  232  f.  On  the  relation 
between  the  lapis  and  Juppiter  Elicius,  see  Wissowa,  Religion  und  Kultus  der  Romer, 
p.  106  ;  cf.  Roscher,  Lexikon,  article  "  Iuppiter,"  col.  606  ff.  5  See  above,  §  97  ff. 


124     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

When  the  power  of  a  fetish  seems  to  be  exhausted,  and  a  new 
object  is  chosen  and  by  appropriate  ceremonies  a  spirit  is  induced 
to  take  up  its  abode  in  it,  there  seems  to  be  no  theory  as  to 
whether  the  incoming  spirit  is  the  old  one  or  a  new  one,  or,  if  it 
be  a  new  one,  what  becomes  of  the  old  one,  about  which  little  or  no 
interest  is  felt.1  The  pneumatology  is  vague ;  the  general  view  is 
that  the  air  is  full  of  spirits,  whose  movements  may  be  controlled 
by  magical  means :  spirits,  that  is,  are  subject  to  laws,  and  these 
laws  are  known  to  properly  trained  men. 

291.  Reverence  for  divine  stones  continues  into  the  period  of 
the  rise  of  the  true  gods.  When  god  and  stone  stand  together  in 
a  community,  both  revered,  they  may  be  and  generally  are  com- 
bined into  a  cultic  unity  :  the  stone  becomes  the  symbol  or  the 
abode  or  the  person  of  the  god.2  It  was,  doubtless,  in  some  such 
way  as  this  that  a  stone  came  to  be  identified  with  the  Magna 
Mater  of  Pessinus.  When  this  stone  was  brought  to  Rome  toward 
the  end  of  the  Second  Punic  War,  the  Roman  leaders  may  have 
regarded  it  simply  as  a  symbol  of  the  goddess,  but  the  people 
probably  looked  on  it  as  itself  a  divine  defense  against  Hannibal.3 
The  Israelite  ark,  carried  out  to  the  battle  against  the  Philistines,4 
appears  to  have  contained  a  stone,  possibly  a  meteorite,  possibly 
a  piece  taken  from  the  sacred  mountain  Sinai,  itself  divine,  but  in 
the  Old  Testament  narrative  regarded  as  the  abode  of  Yahweh  (a 
Sinaitic  god),  though  it  was  probably  of  independent  origin  and 
only  gradually  brought  into  association  with  the  local  god  of  the 
mountain. 

292.  Similar  interpretations  may  be  given  of  other  stones  iden- 
tified or  connected  with  deities,  as  that  of  Zeus  at  Seleucia,5  that 
of  Aphrodite  at  Paphos,G  that   of  Jupiter  Lapis,7    and   the  black 

3  On  processes  of  capturing  a  god  in  order  to  inclose  him  in  an  object,  or  of 
transferring  a  god  from  one  object  to  another,  see  W.  Crooke,  "The  Binding  of  a 
God,"  in  Folklore,  viii. 

2  In  pre-Islamic  Arabia  many  gods  were  represented  by  stones,  the  stone  being 
generally  identified  with  the  deity;  so  Al-Lat,  Dhu  ash-Shara  (Dusares),  and  the 
deities  represented  by  the  stones  in  the  Meccan  Kaaba.         3  Livy,  xxix,  io  f. 

4  i  Sam.  iv.  5  Head,  Historia  Numorum,  p.  66i. 
6  Tacitus,  Hist,  ii,  3  ;  it  was  conical  in  shape. 

<  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  p.  230  ff. ;  cf.  above,  the  "lapis  manalis,"  §  289. 


EARLY  CULTS  I  25 

stone  that  represented  the  Syrian  Elagabalos  at  Emesa.1  The 
remark  of  Pausanias,  after  he  has  described  the  thirty  sacred 
stones  of  Pherae,  that  the  early  Greeks  paid  divine  honors  to  un- 
hewn stones,  doubtless  expresses  the  traditions  and  beliefs  of  his 
time;2  and  it  is  probable  that  in  antiquity  there  were  many  divine 
stones,  and  that  these  were  frequently  in  later  times  identified  with 
local  gods.  In  many  cases,  however,  there  was  no  identification, 
only  a  collocation  and  subordination  :  the  stone  became  the  sym- 
bol of  the  deity,  or  a  sacred  object  associated  with  the  deity.3 

293.  This  seems  to  be  the  later  conception  of  the  character  of 
the  sacred  stones  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament,  as  the  one 
that  Jacob  is  said  to  have  set  up  as  a  masseba  and  anointed.4 
The  Canaanite  massebas,  adopted  as  cultic  objects  by  the  Israel- 
ites,5 were  stone  pillars  standing  by  shrines  and  regarded  as  a 
normal  if  not  a  necessary  element  of  worship ;  originally  divine  in 
themselves  (as  may  be  inferred  from  the  general  history  of  such 
objects),  they  came  to  be  regarded  as  mere  accessories ;  there  is 
no  indication  in  the  Old  Testament  that  they  were  looked  on  as 
gods,  though  they  may  have  been  so  regarded  by  the  people 6  — 
their  presence  at  the  Canaanite  shrines,  as  a  part  of  foreign,  non- 
Yahwistic  worship,  sufficiently  explains  the  denunciation  of  them 
by  the  prophets.7 

294.  In  the  story  of  Jacob  he  is  said  to  have  given  the  name 
Bethel  to  the  place  where  he  anointed  the  stone.  It  does  not 
appear  that  he  so  called  the  stone  itself ;  Bethel  (in  Hebrew, 
"  house  of  God  " 8)  seems  to  have  been  an  old  sacred  place,  and 
terms  compounded  with  '  beth '  in  Hebrew  are  names  of  shrines. 
The  relation  between  this  name  and  the  Semitic  word  whence, 

1  Herodian,  v,  3,  10. 

2  Pausanias,  vii,  22.    Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  i6off. 

3  H.  Spencer,  Principles  of  Sociology,  i,  335  ;  Saussaye,  Manual  of  the  Science  of 
Religion  (Eng.  tr.),  p.  85  ff. 

4  Gen.  xxviii,  iS  ;  cf.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  p.  203  f. 

5  Hos.  iii,  4. 

6  The  reference  in  Jer.  ii,  27,  I  lab.  ii,  19  (stones  as  parents  and  teachers),  seems 
to  be  to  the  cult  of  foreign  deities,  represented  by  images. 

"  On  the  interpretation  of  the  masseba  as  a  phallus  or  a  kteis  see  below,  §§  400, 406. 
8  And  so  in  Assyrian  and  Arabic. 


126     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

probably,  comes  Greek  baitulos1  (Latin  baetulus)  is  not  clear; 
this  last  is  the  designation  of  a  sacred  stone  held  to  have  fallen 
from  heaven  (meteoric).  Such  an  one  is  called  by  Philo  of  Byb- 
los  "empsuchos,"  <  endowed  with  life  or  with  soul.'2  Pliny  de- 
scribes the  baetulus  as  a  species  of  ceraunia  (thunderstone).3  The 
Greek  word  is  now  commonly  derived  from  betel  Q  bethel ')  —  a 
derivation  possible  so  far  as  the  form  of  the  word  is  concerned.4 
According  to  this  view  the  stone  is  the  abode  of  a  deity  —  a  con- 
ception common  in  early  religion.  Such  an  object  would  be 
revered,  and  would  ultimately  be  brought  into  connection  with  a 
local  god.5  If  Hebrew  bethel  was  originally  a  stone  considered 
as  the  abode  of  a  deity,  then  in  the  Old  Testament  the  earlier 
form  of  the  conception  has  been  effaced  by  the  later  thought  — 
the  word  '  bethel '  has  become  the  name  of  a  place,  a  shrine,  the 
dwelling  place  of  God.6 

295.  The  origin  of  the  black  stone  of  the  Kaaba  at  Mecca  is  un- 
known —  it  was  doubtless  either  a  meteorite  or  in  some  way  con- 
nected with  a  sacred  place ;  it  was,  and  is,  regarded  as  in  itself 
sacred,  but  whether  it  represented  originally  a  deity,  and  if  so  what 
deity,  is  not  known.7 

296.  The  belief  in  the  sacred  character  of  stones  may  account, 
at  least  in  part,  for  the  custom  of  casting  stones  on  the  grave  of  a 
chieftain  (as  in  Northern  Arabia),  though  this  may  be  merely  in- 
tended to  preserve  the  grave.  So  also  the  stones  thrown  at  the 
foot  of  a  Hermes  pillar  may  have  been  meant  as  a  waymark,  yet 
with  the  feeling  that  the  stone  heap  had  a  sacred  character  of  its 

1  There  is  no  Greek  etymology  for  baitulos,  and  if  it  came  from  without,  a 
Semitic  origin  is  the  most  probable. 

2  Eusebius,  Praeparatio  F.vangclica,  i,  io,  iS. 

3  Hist.  Nat.,  bk.  xxxvii,  chap.  51. 

4  Cf.  F.  Lenormant,  in  Revue  de  Phistoire  des  religions,  iii,  31  ff . ;  Gruppe,  Grie- 
chische  Mythologie,  p.  775  f. 

5  For  Phoenician  customs  see  Pietschmann,  P/ionizier,  p.  204  ff . 

0  Cf.  Deut.  x,  2  ;  Ex.  xxv,  16  ;  2  Chr.  v,  10,  where  the  stone  in  the  ark  seems  to 
have  become  two  stone  tables  on  which  the  decalogue  was  written  by  the  finger  of 
Yahweh  — an  example,  if  the  view  mentioned  above  be  correct,  of  the  transforma- 
tion of  a  thing  originally  divine  in  itself  into  an  accessory  of  a  god. 

1  Cf.  Hughes,  Dictionary  of  Islam,  s.v.  Kaaba ;  Wellhausen,  Reste  arabtschen 
Hcidcntumcs,  pp.  99,  171. 


EARLY  CULTS     .  1 27 

own.1  The  stone  circles  at  Stonehenge  and  Avebury  may  have  had 
a  religious  significance,  but  their  function  is  not  clear.  Boundary 
stones  seem  to  have  had  at  first  simply  a  political  function,  but 
were  naturally  dedicated  to  the  deities  who  were  guardians  of 
tribal  boundaries  (Roman  Terminus,  various  Babylonian  gods,  etc.). 

297.  It  is  by  virtue  of  their  divine  character  that  stones  came 
to  be  used  as  altars.2  As  things  divine  in  themselves  or  as  represent- 
ing a  deity  they  receive  the  blood  of  the  sacred  (that  is,  divine) 
sacrificial  animal,  which  is  the  food  of  the  god.  Originally  a  part  of 
the  blood  is  applied  to  the  stone,  and  the  rest  poured  out  or  eaten 
(as  sacred  food)  by  the  worshiper.  In  process  of  time ,  when  the 
god  has  been  divorced  from  the  stone,  the  latter  becomes  a  table 
on  which  the  victim  is  offered  ;3  the  old  conception  survives  in  the 
custom  of  slaying  the  victim  by  the  side  of  the  altar,  and  applying 
the  blood  to  the  horns  of  the  altar  as  a  representative  part  of  the 
sacred  structure.  In  the  late  Jewish  ritual  this  application  of  blood  is 
interpreted  as  a  purification  of  the  altar  from  ceremonial  defilements.4 

298.  Originally,  it  seems,  it  was  only  natural  stones  that  were 
sacred  or  divine  and  were  employed  as  representatives  of  deities ; 
but  by  a  natural  process  of  thought  the  custom  arose  of  using  arti- 
ficial stones  in  the  same  way.  By  means  of  certain  ceremonies,  it  was 
held,  the  deity  could  be  induced  to  accept  an  altar  or  a  house,  or  to 
take  up  his  abode  in  an  image,  as  a  spirit  is  introduced  by  the  savage 
into  a  fetish  object.5  The  basis  of  this  sort  of  procedure  is  first  the 
belief  in  the  amenableness  of  the  deity  to  magical  laws,  and,  later, 
the  belief  in  his  friendly  disposition,  his  willingness  to  accede  to  the 
wishes  of  his  worshipers  provided  they  offer  the  proper  tribute;  but 
even  in  very  late  ceremonies  a  trace  of  the  magical  element  remains. 

1  On  the  relation  between  the  stone  heaps  and  the  Hermes  pillars  cf.  Welcker, 
Griechische  Gottcrlehre,  ii,  455,  and  Roscher,  Lcxikon,  i,  2,  col.  23S2.  With  Hermes 
as  guide  of  travelers  cf.  the  Egyptian  Khem  (Min),  of  Coptos,  as  protector  of  wander- 
ers in  the  desert,  and  perhaps  Eshmun  in  the  Sardinian  trilingual  inscription  (see 
Roscher,  Lexicon,  article  "  Esmun  " ;  Orienialische  Studien  Noldeke  gewidmef), 

2  See  below,  §  1080. 

3  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  pp.  202,  341  ;  cf.  Jevons,  Intro- 
duction to  the  History  of  Religion,  chap,  xi ;  article  ,!  Altar  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia 
of  Religion  and  Ethics.  4  Lev.  xvi,  19. 

5  For  some  methods  of  such  introduction  see  W.  Crooke,  in  Folklore,  viii. 


128     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

299.  The  significance  of  the  high  pillars,  of  stone  or  of  metal, 
that  stood  at  the  entrance  of  certain  Semitic  temples,  is  not  clear. 
Examples  are:  in  Tyre,  the  temple  of  the  local  Baal  (Melkart);1 
Solomon's  temple  of  Yahweh  in  Jerusalem,  and  the  temple  planned 
by  Ezekiel  in  imitation  of  that  of  Solomon  ;2  compare  the  temple  of 
the  Carthaginian  Tanit-Artemis,  a  form  of  Ashtart,  the  votive  stela 
from  the  temple  of  Aphrodite  in  Idalium  (in  Cyprus),  and  similar 
figures  on  Cyprian  coins.3  Of  the  various  explanations  offered  of 
these  pillars  that  which  regards  them  as  phallic  symbols  may  be  set 
aside  as  lacking  proof.4  It  is  not  probable  that  they  were  merely 
decorative;  the  details  of  ancient  temples,  as  a  rule,  were  con- 
nected with  worship.  It  has  been  suggested  that  they  were  fire 
altars,5  in  support  of  which  view  may  be  cited  the  figures  on  Cyprian 
coins  (mentioned  above),  and  the  fact  that  sailors  sacrificed  at  Gades 
at  a  place  where  there  were  two  high  pillars  ; c  but  such  a  custom 
does  not  prove  that  the  sacrifices  were  offered  on  the  pillars,  and 
these  latter  are  generally  too  high  to  serve  such  a  purpose ;  they 
are  too  high  also  to  be  convenient  candelabra.7  It  seems  more  prob- 
able that  they  were  developments  from  sacred  stones  (such  as  the 
Canaanite  massebas),  which  originally  represented  the  deity,  came 
to  be  conventional  attachments  to  temples,  and  then  were  treated 
in  accordance  with  architectural  principles.  They  would  be  placed 
in  pairs,  one  pillar  on  each  side  of  the  temple  door,  for  the  sake  of 
symmetry,  and  dignity  would  be  sought  by  giving  them  a  consid- 
erable height.8  They  might  also  be  utilized,  when  they  were  not 
too  high,  as  stands  for  lamps  or  cressets,  but  this  would  be  a  second- 
ary use.  The  obelisks  that  stood  in  front  of  Egyptian  temples,  like- 
wise, were  probably  sacred  monuments  reared  in  honor  of  deities.9 

1  Herodotus,  ii,  44 ;  he  identifies  Melkart  with  Herakles. 

2  1  Kings,  vii,  15-22  ;  Ezek.  xl,  49. 

3  Perrot  and  Chipiez,  Histoire  de  fart,  vol.  iii  ;  cf.  Pietschmann,  Phonizier, 
p.  203  ff . ;  Rawlinson,  Phoenicia,  p.  338.  4  Cf.  below,  §  399  ff. 

5  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  p.  487  ff.         6  Strabo,  iii,  5,  5. 

7  Those  of  Solomon's  temple  are  described  as  being  27  feet  in  height,  and  with- 
out stairways.  Cf.  the  structures  connected  with  the  Hierapolis  temple  (Lucian,  De 
Syria  Dca,  28). 

8  Desire  for  height  appears  also  in  the  Egyptian  pyramid  and  the  Babylonian 
ziggurat,  but  both  these  had  means  of  ascent  to  the  higher  levels.    Cf.  below,  §  1085. 

'•'  Maspero,  Egyptian  Archaology,  p.  100  ff. 


EARLY  CULTS  I  29 

300.  Images  of  gods  and  other  extrahuman  beings  arise  through 
the  natural  human  impulse  to  represent  familiar  objects  of  thought. 
Very  rude  tribes  have  stone  or  wood  carvings  of  spirits  and  gods, 
good  and  bad.  These  images  are  generally  in  human  shape,  because 
all  Powers  are  thought  of  as  anthropomorphic.  Sometimes,  as 
Reville  suggests,  a  root,  or  branch  of  a  tree,  bearing  some  resem- 
blance to  the  human  face  or  figure,  may  have  led  to  the  making  of 
an  image ;  but  the  general  natural  artistic  tendency  is  sufficient  to 
account  for  the  fact.1 

301.  The  character  assigned  to  images  varies  with  stages  of  cul- 
ture. In  low  communities  they  are  themselves  divine  —  the  gods 
have  entered  into  them  and  they  are  not  thought  of  as  different 
from  their  divine  indwellers. '  In  such  cases  they  are  sometimes 
chained  to  prevent  their  getting  away ;  if  they  are  obstinate,  not 
listening  to  prayers,  they  are  cuffed,  scourged,  or  reviled.2  This  con- 
ception lingers  still  among  the  peasants  of  Southern  Europe,  who 
treat  a  saint  (a  rechristened  old  god)  as  if  he  were  a  man  to  be  won 
by  threats  or  cajolements.  In  a  more  refined  age  the  image  be- 
comes simply  a  symbol,  a  visible  representation  serving  to  fix  the 
attention  and  recall  divine  things.  Different  races  also  differ  in  the 
extent  of  their  demand  for  such  representations  of  deity. 

302.  Stones  and  rocks,  like  other  natural  objects,  are  starting- 
points  for  folk-stories  and  myths.  All  over  the  world  they  lie  on 
the  ground  or  rise  in  the  shape  of  hills,  and,  being  mysterious, 
require  explanation.  The  explanations  given,  and  handed  down 
from  generation  to  generation,  are  always  connected  with  superhu- 
man or  with  extraordinary  persons,  ancestors,  heroes,  spirits.  To 
each  stone  or  rock  a  story  is  attached,  a  creation  of  the  fancy  sug- 
gested by  the  surroundings  and  by  the  popular  traditions  ;  and  each 
story  forms  an  episode  in  the  history  of  the  hero  or  spirit.  The 
stones  and  rocks  thus  come  to  constitute  a  book  chronicling  the 
history  of  the  tribe  and  the  deeds  of  its  great  men  —  a  book  quite 

1  The  movement  from  aniconic  to  anthropomorphic  forms  is  seen  in  the  image  of 
the  Ephesian  Artemis,  the  upper  half  human,  the  lower  half  a  pillar  (Roscher,  text- 
kon,  i,  1,  cols.  58S,  595). 

2  Examples  in  Tylor's  Primitive  Culture,  2d  ed.,  ii,  170  f . ;  cf.  his  Early  History 
of  Mankind,  chap.  vi. 


130     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

legible  to  the  man  who  has  been  taught  the  stories.  These  grow 
with  every  generation,  receiving  such  additions  as  fancy  and  reflec- 
tion dictate,  and  gradually  taking  on  literary  form.  In  the  territory 
of  the  Australian  Arunta  every  stone  is  connected  with  some  inci- 
dent in  the  careers  of  the  mythical  ancestors,  and  the  stories  taken 
together  form  the  legendary  history  of  the  origin  of  customs.1  In 
Samoa  and  New  Guinea  many  stones  are  pointed  out  as  having 
been  set  in  place  by  local  heroes.  In  North  America  innumerable 
rocks  and  stones  are  connected  with  the  mythical  ancestors  and 
creators  of  the  tribes. 

303.  Mountains  have  everywhere  been  regarded  as  abodes  of 
spirits  or  deities,  and  therefore  sacred.  Their  height  and  massive- 
ness  invested  them  with  dignity  (even  as  now  they  appeal  mightily 
to  the  imagination),  and  their  lofty  summits  and  rugged  sides  were 
full  of  danger  and  mystery.  Sacred  mountains  are  found  in  North 
America,  Bengal,  Africa,  and  elsewhere.  Naturally  they  are  often 
abodes  of  gods  of  rain  ;  they  are  feared  on  account  of  the  spirits  in- 
habiting them,  but  they  are  also  resorted  to  as  places  where  divine 
revelations  may  be  obtained.2  The  Semitic,  Hindu,  and  Greek  ex- 
amples are  familiar :  the  Hebrew  and  Canaanite  Sinai  (or  Horeb), 
Nebo,  Carmel,  Hermon ;  the  Arabian  Arafat,  near  Mecca ;  the 
Babylonian  Ekur ;  in  India,  Meru,  Mandara,  Himavat,  and  other 
mountains  ;  in  Greece,  Olympus  and  Parnassus. 

304.  Mountains  are  also  worshiped  as  being  themselves  divine.3 
The  cult,  however,  has  not  been  important ;  the  physical  mass  is 
too  solid,  lacking  in  movement,  and  human  interest  naturally  cen- 
tered in  the  spirit  or  deity  who  dwelt  therein.4 

305.  Mythological  fancy  has  made  them  the  abodes  and  places 
of  assembly  of  gods  and  glorified  saints,  usually  in  the  north.   The 


1  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  iSS,  etc. 

2  Matthews,  Navalw  Legends,  Index,  s.v.  Mountains ;  article  "  Bengal  "  in  Hast- 
ings, Encyclopcedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics  ;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  260  ;  Hollis, 
The  Xandi,  p.  48. 

3  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  pp.  358  ff.,  537,  and  Journal  of  the  American  Ori- 
ental Society,  September,  1910. 

4  On  a  general  relation  between  gods  and  local  hills  see  Rivers,  The  Todas, 
p.  444. 


EARLY  CULTS  131 

mythical  Ekur  was  the  dwelling  place  of  Babylonian  deities.1  In 
India  various  peaks  in  the  Himalayas,  inaccessible  to  men,  were 
assigned  to  groups  of  deities,  and  the  mythical  world-mountain 
Meru  was  the  special  abode  of  great  gods,  who  there  lived  lives 
of  delight.2  On  the  highest  peak  of  the  Thessalian  Olympus  Zeus 
sat,  surrounded  by  the  inferior  gods ;  here  he  held  councils  and 
announced  his  decrees.3  The  two  conceptions  of  the  home  of 
the  gods  —  on  mountains  and  in  the  sky  —  existed  for  a  time 
side  by  side,  having  in  common  the  feature  of  remoteness  and 
secrecy ;  gradually  the  earthly  abode  was  ignored,  and  the  gods 
were  assigned  to  the  more  dignified  heavenly  home. 

Waters 

306.  To  early  man  waters,  fire,  winds,  are  interesting  because 
of  their  relation  to  his  life,  and  sacred  because  of  their  power  and 
mysteriousness.4  They  are  regarded  by  him  not  as  "  elements  "  of 
the  world,  but  as  individual  phenomena  that  affect  well-being.  His 
conception  of  them  is  not  cosmogonic  or  analytic,  but  personal ; 
they  are  entities  with  which  he  has  to  deal. 

307.  The  mobility  of  masses  of  water,  seeming  to  be  a  sign  of 
life,  naturally  procured  them  a  definite  place  among  sacred  things. 
Any  spring,  pond,  lake,  or  river  with  which  a  tribe  was  brought 
into  intimate  relations  was  regarded  as  a  source  of  life  or  of  heal- 
ing, and  of  divination.  Dwellers  by  the  sea  regarded  it  with  awe ; 
its  depths  were  mysterious  and  its  storms  terrible. 

308.  As  in  the  case  of  animals,  plants,  and  stones,  so  here:  the 
earliest  conception  of  water  masses  is  that  they  are  divine  in  them- 
selves (every  one,  of  course,  having  its  own  soul),  and  are  potent 
for  bodily  help  or  harm,  and  for  divination.    The  waters  of  the 


1  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  pp.  541,638  ;  cf.  Isa.  xiv,  13.  Many 
Babylonian  temples,  considered  as  abodes  of  gods,  were  called  "  mountains." 

2  Hopkins,  in  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  loc.  cit.,  where  the  mythi- 
cal mountains  of  the  Mahabharata  are  described.  3  /Had viii,  2  al. 

4  Bastian,  "  Vorstellungen  von  Wasser  und  Feuer,"  in  Zcitsehrift  fiir  Ethnologic,  i : 
Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  2d  ed.,  ii,  209  ff.,  274  ff. ;  W.  K.  Smith,  Religion  of  the 
Semites,  lecture  v. 


132     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Nile,  the  Ganges,  the  Jordan,  were  held  to  heal  the  diseased  and 
purify  the  unclean  ;  and  a  similar  power  is  now  ascribed  to  the 
water  of  the  well  Zamzam  in  the  Kaaba  at  Mecca.  Hannibal 
swore,  among  other  things,  by  the  waters,1  and  the  oath  by  the 
river  Styx  was  the  most  binding  of  oaths,  having  power  to  control 
even  the  gods ;  the  thing  by  which  an  oath  is  taken  is  always 
originally  divine.  In  the  Hebrew  ordeal  of  jealousy  the  sacred 
water  decides  whether  the  accused  woman  is  guilty  or  not.2  The 
sea  is  treated  as  a  living  thing,  whose  anger  may  be  appeased  by 
gifts  :  it  is  a  monster,  a  dragon.3  The  Spartan  Cleomenes,  about 
to  start  on  a  voyage,  sacrifices  a  bull  to  the  sea.4  Offerings  to  the 
sea  are  made  in  the  Maldive  Islands.5 

309.  Water  is  abundantly  employed  in  religious  ritual  as  a  means 
of  purification  from  ceremonial  defilement,  and  in  services  of  initi- 
ation. A  bathing-place  often  stood  by  a  shrine  (as  in  pre-Islamic 
Arabia  and  in  Islam  now),  and  immersions  came  to  play  a  promi- 
nent part  in  highly  developed  systems  (Jewish,  Christian,  Mithraic). 
The  purification  was  generally  symbolic,  but  in  some  forms  of  Chris- 
tian belief  the  water  of  baptism  is  held  to  have  regenerating  power 6 
—  a  survival  of  the  ancient  conception  of  the  divinity  of  water. 

310.  It  is  often  hard  to  say  whether  a  body  of  water  is  regarded 
simply  as  itself  a  living  thing,  or  is  conceived  of  as  the  dwelling 
place  of  an  isolated  or  independent  spirit.  In  savage  systems  the 
details  on  this  point  are  hardly  ever  recorded  or  obtainable ;  but 
the  beliefs  involved  in  later  folk-lore  make  it  probable  that  this  latter 
stage  of  the  construction  of  creeds  is  passed  through  in  savage  life. 
The  water  maidens  of  Greek  mythology  and  the  Germanic  nixies 
and  water  kelpies  are  developed  forms  of  spirits.  Sacred  springs 
and  wells  are  still  believed  to  be  inhabited  by  beings  that  are  not 
gods,  but  possess  superhuman  power. 

311.  While  wells  and  streams  of  a  domestic  character  (such  as 
are  freely  used  by  human  beings)  are  generally  friendly,  they  have 
their  unfriendly  side.   The  spirits  that  dwell  in  them  are  sometimes 

1  Polybius,  vii,  9.  2  Num.  v.  3  Job  vii,  12.  4  Herodotus,  vi,  76. 

5  Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  x,  179 ;  Bell,  Maldive  Islands,  p.  73. 

6  In  Titus  iii,  5,  the  reference  seems  to  be  to  baptism. 


EARLY  CULTS  1 33 

regarded  as  being  hostile  to  man.  They  drag  the  incautious 
wanderer  into  their  depths,  and  then  nothing  can  save  him  from 
drowning.  Fear  of  these  malignant  beings  sometimes  prevents  at- 
tempts to  rescue  a  drowning  person  ;  such  attempts  are  held  to  bring 
down  the  vengeance  of  the  water-demon  on  the  would-be  rescuer.1 

312.  In  the  course  of  time  true  water-gods  appear.  In  Greece 
every  river  had  its  deity,  and  in  India  such  deities  are  found  in 
the  Mahabharata.2  When  in  the  Iliad  the  river  Xanthos  rises  to 
seize  and  drown  Achilles,  it  may  be  a  question  whether  the  stream 
or  the  god  of  the  stream  is  the  actor.  Nor  is  it  always  possible  to 
say  whether  the  extrahuman  Power  inhabiting  a  water  mass  is  a 
true  god  or  a  spirit ;  the  latter  form  may  pass  by  invisible  grada- 
tions into  the  former. 

313.  Waters  originally  divine  tend  to  become  the  abodes  of  the 
deity  of  the  place,  or  sacred  to  him,  and  healing  or  other  power  is 
ascribed  to  his  presence  or  agency.3  Sacred  wrater,  being  unwill- 
ing to  retain  anything  impure,  thus  becomes  a  means  of  detecting 
witches  and  other  criminals,  who,  when  thrown  in,  cannot  sink,  but 
are  rejected  by  the  divine  Power. 

314.  Deities  of  streams  and  springs  do  not  play  an  important 
part  in  worship  or  in  mythology ;  their  physical  functions  are  not 
definite  enough,  and  their  activities  are  naturally  merged  in  or  sub- 
sumed under  those  of  the  greater  or  more  definite  local  gods.  If, 
for  example,  the  Canaanite  Baals  are  gods  or  lords  of  underground 
irrigation,4  this  is  because  they,  as  divine  lords  of  the  particular 
regions,  control  all  phenomena ;  they  are,  in  fact,  also  gods  of  rain 
and  thunderstorms,  harvests  and  war.  So  rain-gods  in  general  are 
to  be  regarded  as  local  deities,  among  whose  functions  that  of  be- 
stowing rain  was  regarded  as  specially  important.  In  the  lowest  sys- 
tems the  rain-giver  may  be  a  sacred  stone,  dipped  in  a  stream,5  or  a 
royal  or  priestly  magician  who  is  held  responsible  and  is  punished 

1  De  Groot,  Religion  of  the  Chinese,  p.  10  f. ;  cf.  the  German  Lorelei. 

2  Frazer  (in  Anthropological  Essays  presented  to  E.  B.  Tylor)  sees  a  river-god  in  the 
figure  mentioned  in  Gen.  xxxii,  24.  3  Cf.  John  v,  4  (in  some  MSS.). 

4  This  is  W.  R.  Smith's  contention  in  Religion  of  the  Semites,  lecture  V.  See  his 
account  of  Semitic  water-gods  in  general. 

5  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  345  f.    Cf.  the  Roman  lapis  manalis ;  see  above,  §  136. 


134     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

if  the  expected  result  is  not  attained.1   In  such  cases  the  procedure 


is  often  one  of  imitative  magic. 


315.  If  there  be,  in  the  next  higher  stratum  of  belief,  a  local 
or  tribal  god,  it  is  he  who  is  looked  to  for  the  rain  supply ;  so  the 
early  Hebrews  looked  to  Yahweh,3  and  the  Canaanites,  doubtless,  to 
the  Baals.  The  economic  importance  of  rain  led,  even  in  low  tribes, 
to  the  conception  of  a  special  deity  charged  with  its  bestowal.4  In 
more  elaborate  mythologies  various  deities  are  credited  with  rain- 
making  power.  In  India,  for  example,  Dyaus,  the  Maruts,  Par- 
janva,  Brihaspati,  Indra,  Agni,5  all  concerned  with  rain,  have,  all 
except  Agni,  evidently  grown  from  local  figures  with  general  func- 
tions ;  this  appears  from  the  great  variety  of  parts  they  play.  The 
same  thing  is  true,  perhaps,  of  Zeus  and  Jupiter  in  their  character 
of  rain-gods  —  as  all-sufficient  divine  patrons  they  would  be  dis- 
pensers of  all  blessings,  including  rain;  they  seem,  however,  to 
have  been  originally  gods  of  the  sky,  and  thus  naturally  the 
special  guardians  of  rain.6 

316.  Great  masses  of  water  have  given  rise  to  myths,  mostly 
cosmogonic.  The  conception  of  a  watery  mass  as  the  primeval 
material  of  the  world  (in  Egypt,  Babylonia,  India,  Greece,  Rome) 
belongs  not  to  religion  but  to  science;  in  a  relatively  advanced 
period,  however,  this  mass  was  represented  as  a  monster,  the 
antagonist  of  the  gods  of  light  and  order,  and  from  this  repre- 
sentation has  come  a  wjiole  literature  of  myths.  In  Babylonia  a 
great  cosmogonic  poem  grew  up  in  which  the  dragon  figures  of 
the  water  chaos  (Tiamat,  Mummu,  Kingu)  play  a  great  part,7 
and  echoes  of  this  myth  appear  in  the  later  Old  Testament  books. 

1  A  large  number  of  examples  are  given  by  Frazer  in  his  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  i, 
8if.,al. 

2  Brinton,  Myths  ol the  Nciv  World,  p.  17  ;  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  ol 
Central  Australia,^.  189  f. 

3  One  signification  (not  a  probable  one)  proposed  for  the  name  Yahweh  is,  f  he 
who  causes  (rain)  to  fall.' 

4  Examples  of  such  gods,  in  Africa,  America,  and  Asia,  are  given  in  Tylor's  Prim- 
itive Culture,  ii,  259  ff.  5  Hopkins,  Religious  of  India,  p.  qq  ff. 

6  So  in  the  Secrets  of  Enoch  (ed.  R.  H.  Charles),  chaps,  iv-vi,  the  treasuries  of 
rain  and  dew  in  the  lowest  heaven  are  guarded  by  angels. 

7  Jastrow,  Religion  0/  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  Index,  s.vv. 


EARLY  CULTS  135 

317.  In  the  more  elaborate  pantheons  the  local  deities  of  streams 
and  springs  tend  to  disappear,  and  gods  of  ocean  appear :  in  Baby- 
lonia, Ea ;  in  Greece,  Okeanos  and  Poseidon  ;  in  Rome,  Neptune; 
and  along  with  these  are  numerous  subordinate  figures  —  attendants 
on  the  great  gods,  and  intrusted  with  various  particular  duties. 

Fire 

318.  There  was,  doubtless,  a  time  when  man  had  not  learned  to 
produce  fire,  and  there  may  now  be  tribes  unacquainted  with  its 
domestic  uses.  But  such  ignorance,  if  it  exists,  is  rare ;  savages 
generally  know  how  to  make  fire,  and  to  use  it  for  warmth  and  for 
the  preparation  of  food.  When  men  began  to  reflect  on  the  origin 
of  things,  fire  seemed  to  them  so  wonderful  that  they  supposed  it 
must  have  been  discovered  or  invented,  and  the  knowledge  of  it 
bestowed  on  men  by  higher  beings,  gods  or  demigods ;  such  bene- 
factors are  Hastsezini  (of  the  Navahos),  Lightning  (of  the  Paw- 
nees), the  Beaver  and  the  Eagle  (of  the  Thompson  River  Indians 
of  British  Columbia),  Maui  (of  the  Maoris),  Agni,  Prometheus.1 

319.  Though,  like  other  mysterious  things,  it  has  been  regarded 
generally  (perhaps  universally)  as  sacred,  there  is  no  clear  proof 
that  it  has  been  worshiped  as  divine.  What  may  have  been  the 
case  in  remote  ages  we  cannot  tell,  but,  according  to  the  information 
we  possess,  it  has  been,  and  is,  merely  revered  as  in  itself  mys- 
terious or  sacred,2  or  as  the  abode  or  production  of  a  spirit  or  a 
deity.  Possibly  in  the  early  stages  of  culture  known  to  us  there  is  a 
fusion  of  the  element  with  the  indwelling  or  controlling  god  or  spirit.3 
The  divine  patrons  of  fire  are  found  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  varying 

1  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  t>7  '■>  Dorsey,  The  Skidi  Paivnee,  p.  8  ;  Teit,  Thomp- 
son River  Indians,  p.  56  f;  R.  Taylor,  New  Zealand  and  its  Inhabitants,  p.  130; 
Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  16S,  n.  1  ;  Roscher,  Lcxikon,  article  "Prometheus." 
Accounts  of  the  original  production  or  the  theft  of  fire  are  found  in  savage  mythol- 
ogy the  world  over  ;  see  Frobenius,  Childhood  of  Man,  chaps,  xxv-xxvii ;  Seligmann, 
The  Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  p.  379  ;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  277  ff . ; 
O.  T.  Mason,  Origins  of  Invention,  chap  iii. 

2  So  among  the  Todas  (Rivers,  The  Todas,  p.  437)  and  the  Xandi  (Mollis,  The 
Nandi,  p.  85). 

3  On  an  identification  of  Agni  with  fire  see  Bloomneld,  Religion  of  the  J'eda, 
p.  15S  ff. 


136     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

in  form  and  function  according  to  the  degrees  of  advancement  of  the 
various  communities,  from  the  beast-gods  of  the  Redmen  to  the  de- 
partmental deities  of  the  Maoris,  Babylonians,  Mexicans,  and  others, 
and  to  the  more  complicated  gods  of  Hindus,  Greeks,  and  Romans.1 

320.  The  most  elaborate  and  most  interesting  of  all  fire-cults  is 
the  Persian.  The  ritual  of  the  Avesta  appears  at  times  to  describe 
a  worship  of  the  element  itself :  in  Fargard  xviii  the  fire  implores 
the  householder  to  rise,  wash  his  hands,  and  put  pure  wood  on  the 
I  lame  ;  Yacna  lxi  is  a  hymn  of  homage  and  petition  addressed  to 
the-  tire,  which  is  called  the  son  of  Ahura  Mazda  —  the  householder 
asks  that  all  the  blessings  of  life  may  be  his  as  a  reward  for  his 
sacrifice.  The  numerous  temples  devoted  to  the  fire-cult,  men- 
tioned by  later  writers,2  might  seem  to  look  in  the  same  direction. 
But  a  comparison  of  other  parts  of  the  Avesta  makes  it  doubtful 
whether  in  the  passages  just  cited  anything  more  is  meant  than  that 
the  fire,  as  a  creation  of  Ahura  Mazda  and  sacred  to  him,  is  for  his 
sake  worthy  of  reverence  and  through  him  a  source  of  blessing. 
Thus  Yacna  xvii  is  a  hymn  in  honor  of  Ahura  Mazda  and  all  his 
creatures,  among  which  are  mentioned  the  law  of  Zarathustra,  the 
fire  (and  five  different  fires  are  named),  the  soul  of  the  ox,  and  pure 
deeds,  along  with  the  Amesha-Spentas,  the  heavenly  bodies,  and 
good  men.  This  collection  shows  vagueness  in  the  conception  of  the 
divine  and  the  sacred,  and,  to  say  the  least,  leaves  it  uncertain 
whether  the  singer  does  not  think  of  the  fire  simply  as  a  symbol  of 
the  Supreme  God. 

321.  The  relation  of  fire  to  the  gods,  and  especially  its  use  in 
sacrifice,  have  led  to  a  number  of  religious  ceremonies  in  which  it 
plays  a  principal  part.3  Certain  fires  must  be  kindled  by  specially 
appointed  sacred  persons:  among  the  Todas  of  Southern  India, 
when  a  new  dairy  is  visited  or  an  old  dairy  is  reconsecrated  ;4  among 

iSee  Chap.  VI. 

2  Shahrastani  (12th  century),  Kitab  al-Milahva'l-Nihal,  a  sketch  of  religions  and 
philosophical  sects,  Moslem  and  other  (Germ.  tr.  by  Haarbriicker,  p.  298  *•)• 

3  Hopkins  observes  {Religions  of  India,  p.  105)  that  originally  fire  (Agni),  in  dis- 
tinction from  sun  and  lightning,  is  the  fire  of  sacrifice.  Cf.  Bloomfield,  Religion  of 
the  Veda,  p.  157. 

4  Rivers,  The  Todas,  p.  437  ;  cf.  the  ceremony  described  on  page  290  f. 


EARLY  CULTS  I  37 

the  Lacandones  of  Central  America,  on  the  occasion  of  the  renewal 
of  the  incense-bowls;1  in  the  Peruvian  temple  at  the  feast  of 
Raymi,  when  the  flame  was  intrusted  to  the  care  of  the  Virgins 
of  the  Sun,  and  was  to  be  kept  up  during  the  year ; 2  in  the  temples 
of  Hestia  and  Vesta ;  throughout  Greece,  when  the  fires  had  been 
polluted  by  the  presence  of  the  Persians,  it  was  ordered  that  they 
should  be  put  out  and  rekindled  from  the  sacred  fire  at  Delphi.3 

322.  The  purificatory  power  of  fire  was,  doubtless,  a  fact  of  early 
observation. 

323.  As  the  physical  means  of  sacrifice,  fire  acquired  a  certain 
symbolic  significance;  in  the  Hebrew  ritual  "fire-offerings"  are  re- 
garded as  specially  important.  By  Carthaginians,  Moabites,  and 
Hebrews  children  were  devoted  to  the  deity  by  fire.4 

324.  By  reason  of  its  brightness  fire  connects  itself  in  religious 
imagery  with  the  sun,  with  lightning,  and  with  light  in  general,  and 
so  appears  frequently  as  a  representation  of  the  glory  of  the  deity.5 

325.  Light  is  sometimes  regarded  as  an  independent  thing,  and 
as  sacred.6 

Winds 

326.  Traces  of  an  early  cult  of  the  physical  wind  may  be  found, 
perhaps,  in  certain  customs  that  survive  in  modern  communities ; 
as,  for  example,  in  the  offering  of  food  to  the  wind  that  it  may  be 
placated  and  do  no  harm.7  The  belief  of  sailors  that  wind  may  be 
called  up  by  whistling  rests  on  a  process  of  imitative  magic  that 
may  be  connected  with  an  early  cult.  Wind  is  said  to  be  regarded 
as  a  divine  being  in  some  American  tribes.8  But  generally  it  is  the 
spirit  or  god  of  a  wind  (and  usually  of  a  definite  wind)  that  is 

1  A.  M.  Tozzer,  Comparative  Study  of  the  Mayas  and  the  Lacandones,  p.  133. 

2  Prescott,  Peru,  i,  106  f.  3  Plutarch,  Aristides,  20. 

4  The  Hebrew  expression,  rendered  in  the  English  version  "  cause  to  pass  through 
fire,"  means  simply  'devote  by  fire.' 

5  Ex.  xix,  18  ;  Ezek.  i,  4  ;   Ps.  xviii,  9  [8]  ;  Rig-Veda,  iii,  26,  7  (Indra). 

c  Rivers,  The  Todas,  p.  437.  In  Gen.  i,  3,  light  appears  before  the  creation  of  the 
heavenly  bodies. 

7  So  in  Carinthia,  the  Tyrol,  and  neighboring  districts  (Wuttke,  Der  deutsche 
Volksaberglaube  der  Gegenwart,  p.  86). 

8  Dorsey,  The  Skidi  Pawnee,  p.  xix. 


138     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

invoked.     Examples  of  wind-gods  are  found  in  all  parts  of  the 
world.1    A  wind  may  be  the  vehicle  or  the  messenger  of  a  deity.2 

327.  As  in  the  cases  of  other  elements,  referred  to  above,  it  is 
often  hard  to  say  whether  it  is  the  thing  or  the  deity  that  is  invoked : 
Achilles's  appeal,  for  instance,  seems  to  be  to  the  physical  winds, 
but  Iris,  who  goes  to  summon  them,  finds  them  carousing  like  men, 
and  they  act  like  gods.3  It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that 
in  early  thought  all  active  things  are  conceived  of  as  being  anthro- 
pomorphic, and  there  is  the  difficulty,  just  mentioned,  of  determining 
where  the  anthropomorphic  object  stops  and  the  spirit  or  god  begins. 

Heavenly  Bodies 

328.  The  heavenly  bodies  seem  to  have  been  regarded  at  first 
merely  as  objects  somehow  thrown  up  into  the  sky  or  in  some 
other  way  fixed  there  by  gods  or  men.4  Later,  under  the  general 
anthropomorphizing  tendency,  they  are  conceived  of  as  manlike 
beings,  and  their  characters  and  histories  are  worked  out  in  ac- 
cordance with  local  ideas.  Their  origin  is  ascribed  at  first  to  such 
creative  beings  as  appear  in  the  various  early  communities ;  for 
example,  among  the  Navahos  to  the  First  Man,  the  First  Woman, 
and  the  coyote.5 

329.  In  half-civilized  peoples  elaborate  cosmogonies  arise,  in 
which  the  sky  is  introduced  along  with  sun,  moon,  and  stars. 
The  most  noteworthy  of  these  representations  of  the  origin  of 
the  sky  is  one  that  occurs  in  almost  identical  forms  in  Egypt  and 
New  Zealand,  among  the  Masai  of  Central  East  Africa,  and  else- 
where :  two  beings  lie  in  marriage  embrace  —  one  is  lifted  up  and 
stretches  from  horizon  to  horizon  as  the  sky,  the  other  remains  as 
the  earth.6  The  sun  is  commonly  male  but  sometimes  female,7  and 

1  See  below,  §  662,  etc.        2  Ps.  xviii,  n  [10]  ;  civ,  3  f .        3  Iliad,  xxiii,  194  ff. 

4  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  chap,  xviii ;  Rivers, 
The  Todas,  p.  595.  5  W.  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  pp.  80,  223. 

0  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  55  ;  Taylor,  New  Zealand,  p.  119;  Hollis,  The 
Masai,  p.  279 ;  cf.  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  283. 

7  Teit,  Thompson  River  Indians,  p.  55  (the  present  sun  is  the  daughter  of  a 
man  sun). 


EARLY  CULTS  I  39 

there  is  also  diversity  of  views  as  to  the  sex  of  the  moon.    The  stars 
are  often  called  the  children  of  the  sun  and  moon. 

330.  Savage  fancy  sees  in  the  groups  of  stars  resemblances  to 
human  persons  and  objects.1  Such  resemblances  are  worked  out 
by  civilized  peoples,  a  descriptive  science  of  constellations  arises, 
and  stories  are  invented  to  explain  the  origin  of  their  names.  These 
stellar  myths,  brought  into  connection  with  others,  play  a  great  part 
in  developed  mythologies. 

331.  Among  higher  communities  there  are  diverse  conceptions 
of  the  sex  of  the  great  luminaries.  The  word  for  '  sun '  is  feminine 
in  Sanskrit,  Anglo-Saxon,  German,  and  often  in  Hebrew ;  masculine 
in  Babylonian,  Assyrian,  Greek,  and  Latin.  '  Moon  '  is  masculine  in 
Anglo-Saxon  and  German,  and  generally  in  Sanskrit  and  the  Semitic 
languages ;  feminine  in  Greek  and  Latin.  The  reasons  for  these 
differences  are  to  be  sought  in  the  economic  relations  of  the  com- 
munities to  sun  and  moon,  and  in  the  play  of  imagination,  but  the 
history  of  the  variations  is  not  clear.  One  proposed  explanation 
is  that  to  those  who  traveled  by  night  on  land  or  on  sea  the  moon 
was  the  strong  guide  and  patron,  and  by  day  the  sun  appeared  as  a 
splendidly  beautiful  woman.  Other  explanations  have  been  offered, 
but  no  general  determining  principle  can  be  stated.2 

332.  The  early  anthropomorphic  figures  of  sun  and  moon  appear 
to  be  on  the  verge  of  becoming  true  gods.  It  is,  however,  often 
difficult  to  decide  whether  in  the  widespread  veneration  of  the  sun 
it  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  living  thing  (it  is  frequently  represented 
as  a  man,  a  great  chief,3  dwelling  in  the  sky),  or  a  physical  object 
inhabited  by  a  spirit,  or  a  fully  developed  god.4  The  transition  to 
the  higher  conception  is  gradual,  and  will  be  discussed  below,5  along 
with  the  representations  of  the  moon  and  the  stars. 

333.  The  view  that  the  sky  and  the  earth  are  the  original  pro- 
genitors of  things  appears  among  many  peoples,  low  and  high 
(notably  among  the  Chinese);  the  two  are  sometimes  taken  for 

1  See  examples  in  Tylor's  Primitive  Culture,  i,  290  ff. 

2  On  the  position  of  the  sun  and  moon  in  the  later  cults  see  below,  Chap.  VI. 

3  Teit,  op.  cit.,  p.  54. 

4  See  the  elaborate  Pawnee  history  of  gods  (Dorsey,  The  Skidi  Pawnee), 

5  See  Chap.  VI  f. 


140     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

granted,  but  it  is  probable  that  there  were  always  stories  account- 
ing for  their  origin.  The  sky  is  sometimes  female,  usually  in  the 
older  myths  (Maori,  Egyptian),  sometimes  male  (Greek,  Roman).1 

334.  Thunder  and  lightning  are  regarded  in  early  systems  of 
thought  as  independent  things,  only  locally  or  accidentally  com- 
bined. They  are  awful  and  terrible  to  savage  feeling,2  but  they 
have  never  received  religious  worship.  A  quasi-scientific  explana- 
tion of  thunder  found  among  certain  peoples  (North  American, 
Brazilian,  Bakuana,  Karen,  and  others)  is  that  it  is  produced  by 
the  flapping  of  the  wings  of  a  mighty  bird.3  More  commonly 
thunder  is  the  voice  of  a  deity,  and  lightning  is  his  arrow,4  or 
these  are  said  simply  to  be  sent  by  a  god.5 

Worship  of  Human  Beings6 

335.  We  might  naturally  suppose  that  human  beings,  as  well 
as  animals,  plants,  and  inanimate  things,  would  be  objects  of  reli- 
gious reverence  to  undeveloped  communities ;  men,  it  might  seem, 
would  be  thought  worthier  objects  of  worship  than  beasts,  plants, 
and  stones.  In  fact,  the  cult  of  human  beings  has  been  and  is 
widespread,  but  in  this  cult  the  savage  mind  makes  a  sharp  dis- 
tinction between  the  living  and  the  dead.  Living  men  are  tangible 
and  intelligible,  affected  with  human  frailties,  and  therefore  offer 
less  food  for  the  imagination  than  beasts ;  the  souls  of  dead  men 
are  remote,  intangible,  mysterious,  and  it  is  they  that  have  most 
inspired  religious  emotion.    The  history  of  these  cults  is  in  some 

1  On  the  genesial  (urano-chthonic)  conception  of  the  world  in  Polynesia  see  Tau- 
tain,  in  Anthropologic,  vii  (1896).  2  Hollis,  The  Nandi,  p.  113. 

3  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  363  ;  ii,  262.  4  ps.  xxix,  3  ;  xviii,  14,  15  [13,  14]. 

5  Iliad,  viii,  76  f.;  xxi,  198,  etc.  The  thunderbolt  of  Zeus  is  said  in  Hesiod,  Thco- 
gonia,  140  f.,  to  be  forged  by  the  Cyclops. 

6  Bastian,  Beitr'dge ;  H.  Spencer,  Principles  of  Sociology  and  Principles  of  Ethics; 
Grant  Allen,  Evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God;  Waitz-Gerland,  Anthropologic  der Naturv'ol- 
ker;  Lippert,  Allgemeine  Gcschichte  des  Priest crthums  ;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture  ; 
Codrington,  The  Mclanesians;  Frazer,  Golden  Bough;  Wilken,  Handleiding  voor  de 
Vergclykende  Volkenkunde  van  Nederlands eh- Indie  ;  Steinmetz,  Ethnologisehc  Studien 
zur  ersten  Eniwicklung  der  Strafe ;  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the 
Moral  Ideas,  Index,  s.vv.  Kings,  Man-gods ;  Religions  of  Egypt  (Maspero,  Meyer, 
Wiedemann,  Breasted,  Steindorff),  Babylonia  (Jastrow),  India  (Barth,  Hopkins), 
China  (De  Groot),  Greece  (Gruppe),  Rome  (Auer),  etc. 


EARLY  CULTS  14 1 

points  obscure ;  though  many  facts  have  been  collected,  the  data 
are  not  full  and  exact  enough  to  furnish  a  complete  explanation 
of  the  details  of  usage,  diffusion,  origin,  and  development. 

The  Cult  of  the  Living 

336.  Savages  appear  to  put  no  limit  to  the  possible  powers  of 
men.  In  the  absence  of  any  exact  knowledge  of  natural  law  there 
is  no  reason  why  a  man  should  not  be  thought  capable  of  inflicting 
sickness  and  death,  bringing  rain,  securing  food,  and  doing  all  that 
relates  to  human  life.  Magicians,  prophets,  ascetics,  and  saints  are 
credited  with  such  powers  in  early  and  later  times.  Polynesian  chiefs 
are  supposed  to  be  imbued  with  a  sacredness  that  makes  contact 
with  them  dangerous,  and  everything  that  they  touch  becomes 
thereby  taboo  to  the  ordinary  man  ;  the  same  sort  of  sacredness 
clung  to  the  Roman  flamen  dialis,  to  the  emperor  of  Japan,  and 
to  many  other  high  officials.  This  reverence,  however,  is  simply 
fear  of  the  mysterious,  and  does  not,  in  itself,  reach  the  height  of 
worship,  though  it  prepares  the  way  for  it  and  may  sometimes 
be  scarcely  distinguishable  from  worship  proper.  The  magician  is 
the  mouthpiece  of  a  god,  and  in  popular  belief  is  often  invested 
with  power  that  is  practically  divine. 

337.  Many  cases,  in  fact,  are  reported  in  which  living  men  are 
worshiped  as  gods ;  but  such  reports  are  often  open  to  doubt  and 
need  confirmation.  Travelers  and  other  observers  are  not  always 
in  position  to  state  the  facts  precisely ;  particularly  they  do  not 
always  distinguish  between  awe  and  religious  worship,  and  the 
statements  of  savages  on  this  point  are  often  vague.  Frazer  has 
collected  a  considerable  number  of  examples  of  alleged  worship  of 
living  men.1  One  of  these,  that  of  the  dairyman  (/V/V)  of  the 
Todas  of  Southern  India,  is  not  supported  by  the  latest  observer, 
who  says  that  the  palol  is  highly  respected  but  not  worshiped.2 
An  apparently  clear  case  of  worship  is  the  Panjab  god  Nikkal 
Sen,  said  to  be  General  Nicholson  ; 3  and  it  is  not  improbable  that 

1  Golden  Boug/i,  2d  ed.,  i,  139  ff.  -  Rivers,   The  Todas,  p.  448. 

3  Monier-Williams,  Religious  Life  and  Thought  in  India,  p.  2U).  See  the  eases 
mentioned  by  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  522  n. 


142     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

in  other  cases  mentioned  by  Frazer  (Marquesas  Islands,  Raiatea, 
Samoa,  Fiji)  actual  deification  takes  place. 

338.  Among  many  more-advanced  communities  divinity  has 
been  ascribed  to  living  monarchs :  to  the  kings  of  ancient  Egypt ; 
to  many  early  Babylonian  kings  ;  to  the  emperor  of  China  ;  to  some 
of  the  Ptolemies  and  Seleucids ;  to  certain  Roman  emperors ;  to 
the  kings  of  Mexico  and  Peru  ;  and  in  more  modern  times  to 
the  emperor  of  Japan.  Whether  such  titles  involve  a  real  ascrip- 
tion of  divinity,  or  are  only  an  assertion  of  kinship  with  the 
gods,  or  express  nothing  more  than  the  adulation  of  courtiers, 
it  may  not  be  easy  always  to  determine ;  probably  all  these  con- 
ceptions have  existed  at  various  times.  The  conception  that  men 
are  akin  to  gods,  that  there  is  no  difference  of  nature  between  the 
two  classes,  is  an  old  one,  and  the  ascription  of  divinity  to  a  king 
might  involve,  in  earlier  stages  of  civilization  or  even  in  relatively 
advanced  stages,  no  break  in  the  order  of  things.  The  custom  once 
established,  it  might  continue  to  be  observed,  long  accepted  seri- 
ously by  the  mass  of  the  people,  but  coming  gradually'  to  be  re- 
garded by  the  educated  classes  as  a  mere  form. 

339.  The  development  of  the  custom  appears  most  plainly  in 
Egypt}  The  identification  of  the  king  with  Horus  (apparently  the 
ancient  patron  deity  of  Egypt)  runs  through  the  history  down  to 
the  Persian  conquest :  he  is  called  "  Horus  "  or  "  Golden  Horus,*' 
and  sometimes  (as,  for  example,  Mentuhotep  IV)  "  heir  of  Horus," 
or  is  said  to  sit  on  the  throne  of  Horus,  and  has  a  "  Horus  name," 
the  affirmation  of  his  divine  character ;  even  the  monotheistic  re- 
former Amenhotep  IV  is  called  "  Golden  Horus."  At  the  same 
time  he  is  styled  the  "  son  "  of  this  or  that  deity  —  Re,  Min,  Amon, 
Amon-Re,  Osiris  —  according  to  the  particular  patron  adopted  by 
him  ;  the  liberal  interpretation  of  such  filial  relation  is  illustrated 
by  the  title  "son  of  the  gods  of  the  Northland"  given  to  one 
monarch.  The  king  is  "  the  good  god "  ;  at  death  he  flies  to 
heaven  (so,  for  instance,  Totmose  III,  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty). 

340.  The  official  honorific  character  of  divine  titles  appears  as 
early  as  the  fifteenth  century,  when  Queen  Hatshepsut  is  officially 

1  For  the  documents  see  Breasted,  Ancient  Records  oj  Egypt. 


EARLY  CULTS  143 

declared  to  be  the  daughter  of  Anion.  By  such  an  official  pro 
cedure  Alexander,  though  not  akin  to  any  Egyptian  royal  house, 
was  declared  to  be  the  son  of  Amon  ;  Ptolemy  Philadelphia  be- 
came the  son  of  the  sun-god,  and  his  wife  Arsinoe  was  made  a 
goddess  by  a  solemn  ceremony.  Possibly  the  recognition  of  the 
divine  title,  in  educated  Egyptian  circles,  as  a  conventional  form 
began  at  a  relatively  early  time  —  the  easy  way  in  which  a  man 
was  made  a  god  may  have  been  felt  in  such  circles  to  be  incom- 
patible with  real  divinity.  Nevertheless  the  cult  of  the  divinized 
king  was  practiced  seriously.  In  some  cases  the  living  monarch  had 
his  temple  and  retinue  of  priests,  and  divine  honors  were  paid  him.1 

341.  The  case  was  different  in  the  Semitic  treatment  of  kings 
styled  divine.  The  custom  of  so  regarding  them  is  found  only  in 
early  Babylonia.  The  evidence  that  they  were  held  to  be  divine 
consists  in  the  fact  that  the  determinative  for  divinity  (Sumerian 
dingir,  Semitic  an)  is  prefixed  to  their  names  in  the  inscriptions.2 
It  appears  that  the  determinative  occurs  at  times  during  a  period 
of  about  a  thousand  years  (ca.  3000-2000  B.C. — the  chronology 
is  uncertain),  and  is  then  dropped.  The  data  do  not  explain  the 
reasons  for  this  change  of  custom  ;  a  natural  suggestion  is  that 
there  came  a  time  when  the  conception  of  the  deity  forbade  an 
ascription  of  divinity  to  human  beings.  However  this  may  be, 
the  nominal  divinization  of  kings  seems  not  to  have  had  any  effect 
on  the  cultus.  As  far  as  the  known  evidence  goes,  the  king  seems 
never  to  have  been  approached  with  divine  worship.3 

342.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  Babylonian  usage  can 
properly  be  called  Semitic.    As  such  a  custom  is  found  nowhere 


1  Rawlinson,  Egypt,  ii,  40  f.,  84  ;  Ed.  Meyer,  Gest  hh  lite  des  Alien  Aegypletis,  p.  252. 

2  When  in  a  compound  name  the  name  of  a  god  stands  first,  the  determinative  may 
refer  simply  to  the  god  ;  it  is  evidence  for  the  man  only  when  it  stands  immediately 
before  the  nondivine  clement  of  the  royal  name.  The  inscriptions  are  given  in 
Schrader,  Keilmschriftliche  Bibliothek,  11 1,i :  Thureau-Dangin,  Sumeiisch-Akkadischc 
Konigsinschriften.  In  the  Code  of  Hammurabi  (ca.  2000  H.c.)  the  king  in  one  place 
(col.  5, 11.  4,  5)  calls  himself  "  the  Shamash  of  Babylon,"  but  this  is  of  course  a  figure 
of  speech  ;  the  code  is  given  him  by  Shamash,  the  god  of  justice,  and  he  assumes 
to  be  no  less  just  than  the  god  whom  he  here  represents. 

.3  For  a  different  view  see  S.  H.  Langdon,  article  "  Babylonian  Eschatology  "  in 
Essays  in  Modern  Theology  and  Related  Subjects  (the  C.  A.  Briggs  memorial  volume). 


144     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

else  in  the  Semitic  area,  and  as  the  early  Babylonian  Semites 
borrowed  much  from  the  non-Semitic  Sumerians  (they  borrowed 
their  system  of  writing  and  some  literary  material),  it  is  conceiv- 
able that  they  adopted  this  practice  from  them.  There  is,  to  be 
sure,  no  proof,  except  from  the  inscriptions,  that  the  practice  was 
Sumerian ;  but,  as  it  is  found  in  some  Asiatic  non-Semitic  lands,1 
there  is  the  possibility  that  it  existed  among  the  Sumerians,  of 
whose  history,  however,  we  unfortunately  know  little.  It  is  to  be 
noted  that  the  cessation  of  the  practice  appears  to  be  synchronous 
with  the  establishment  of  the  first  great  Semitic  dynasty  at  Babylon. 
343.  No  ascription  of  divinity  to  men  is  found  among  the 
Hebrews.  The  Elohim-beings  (called  "  sons  of  God  "  in  the  Eng- 
lish translation  of  the  Bible)  are  gods.  The  code  forbids  men  to 
curse  God  (not  "judges")2  —  judges  are  not  called  "gods." 
There  is  nothing  going  to  show  that  the  old  Hebrew  kings  were 
looked  on  as  divine.  Frazer's  hypothesis  that  the  king  was  iden- 
tified with  the  God  Adonis3  is  not  supported  by  the  statements 
of  the  Old  Testament ;  the  title  '  my  lord '  (adorn)  given  him  is 
simply  the  ordinary  expression  of  respect  and  courtesy.  He  is 
"  the  anointed  of  Yahweh,"  as  many  ancient  official  persons  (kings 
and  priests)  were  inducted  into  office  by  the  pouring  of  oil  on  their 
heads,  but,  as  a  mouthpiece  and  representative  of  the  deity,  he  is  in- 
ferior to  the  prophet ;  at  best,  flattery,  such  as  that  of  the  woman  of 
Tekoa,  might  liken  him  to  an  angel.4  The  epithet  el gibbor  (English 
Bible,  "  mighty  God  "),  applied  to  a  Jewish  prince,  must  probably  be 
rendered  '  mighty  hero.' 5  The  title  '  gods  ?  has  been  supposed  to  be 
given  to  men  (judges)  a  couple  of  times  in  the  Psalter,6  but  the  refer- 
ence there  seems  to  be  to  Greek  deities  regarded  as  acting  as  judges. 

1  Cf.  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  views  mentioned  above.  Among  the  Mongols 
there  seems  to  be  no  trace  of  such  a  cult  (Buckley,  in  Saussaye,  Lehrbuch  det 
Religionsgcschichtc,  2d  ed.),  but  a  similar  one  is  found  in  Tibet  in  Lamaism. 

2  Ex.  xxii,  28  [27].  Cursing  the  deity  (that  is,  the  national  or  the  local  god)  is 
mentioned  several  times  in  the  Old  Testament.  Eli's  sons  committed  this  offense 
(1  Sam.  iii,  13,  corrected  text),  and  Job  feared  that  his  sons  might  have  been  guilty 
of  it  (Job  i,  5,  where  the  old  Jewish  scribes,  causa  reverentiae,  have  changed  "curse" 
into  ''bless,"— so  also  in  i,  1 1  ;  ii,  5,  9).  3  Adonis  Attis  Osiris,  p.  15  ff. 

4  2  Sam.  xiv,  17.  5  isa.  ix,  6  [5]. 

6  Ps.  Kiii,  1  [2]  ;  lxxxii,  1,  6.  This  last  passage,  however,  is  understood  in  John 
x.  34  f.,  to  refer  to  Jewish  men.    The  Hebrew  text  of  Ps.  xlv,  7  [6],  is  corrupt. 


EARLY  CULTS 


AS 


344.  The  ascription  of  divinity  to  human  beings  is  lacking  in 
Arabia  also  and  among  Semitic  Moslems  generally.  The  Ismailic 
and  Babist  dogmas  of  the  incarnation  of  God  in  certain  men  are 
of  Aryan  (Indian)  origin. 

345.  The  Chinese  conception  of  the  all-pervading  and  absolute 
power  of  the  Universe  naturally  invests  the  emperor  with  divinity.1 
All  human  beings  are  supposed  to  possess  some  portion  of  the 
divine  essence,  but  he  alone,  as  head  and  representative  of  the 
nation,  possesses  it  in  full  measure.  He  is  theoretically  perfect  in 
thought,  word,  and  deed,  and  is  entitled  not  only  to  the  reverence 
and  obedience  of  his  subjects,  but  also  to  their  religious  homage. 
Larger  acquaintance  with  other  peoples  has  doubtless  led  educated 
Chinese  to  regard  him  as  only  one  among  several  great  kings  in 
the  world,  but  for  the  people  at  large  he  is  still  practically  a  god. 
Other  living  men  also  are  worshiped  as  divine. 

346.  The  Japanese  formal  divinization  of  the  emperor  appears 
to  have  begun  with  the  establishment  of  the  monarchy  (in  the 
sixth  or  seventh  century  of  our  era),  but,  like  the  Chinese,  goes 
back  to  the  crude  conception  of  early  times.  It  has  been  gener- 
ally accepted  seriously  by  the  people,  but  has  not  received  philo- 
sophical formulation.  It  is  now  practically  given  up  by  the 
educated  classes,   and  will  probably  soon  vanish  completely." 

347.  Among  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans  the  belief  in  the  divinity 
of  living  men  and  women  was  of  a  vague  character.  In  Homer 
the  epithet  dios  when  applied  to  human  beings  (individuals  or 
peoples)  means  little  more,  if  any  more,  than  '  of  exalted  char- 
acter'  (except  in  the  case  of  mythical  heroes,  like  Achilles,  who 
were  of  actual  divine  parentage).  At  a  later  time  such  diviniza- 
tion was  sometimes  treated  jestingly.  If  Plutarch  may  be  accepted 
as  authority,3  Alexander  did  not  take  his  own  godhead  seriously, 
did  not  believe  in  it,  but  allowed  it  merely  for  its  effect  on  others. 

1  De  Groot,  Religion  of  the  Chinese.  This  is  the  philosophical  form  of  the  dogma. 
The  root  of  the  conception  is  to  be  found,  doubtless,  in  the  old  (savage)  view  that 
the  chief  of  the  tribe  has  quasi-divine  attributes.        -  Knox,  Religion  vi  Japan,  p.  64. 

3  In  Alexander,  28.  In  the  case  of  Alexander  the  influence  of  Egypt  is  ap- 
parent, and  it  may  be  suspected  that  this  influence  affected  the  later  Greek  and 
Roman  custom. 


146     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

It  was  little  more  than  a  farce  when  the  Syrian-Greek  Antiochus  II, 
for  services  rendered  to  a  city,  was  called  "  Theos  "  by  the  grate- 
ful citizens ; 1  it  was  the  baldest  flattery  when  Herod's  oration 2 
was  greeted  by  a  tumultuous  assembly  as  the  "  voice  of  a  god." 
Augustus,  though  he  allowed  temples  and  altars  to  be  consecrated 
to  him  in  the  provinces,  did  not  permit  it  in  Rome,  being,  appar- 
ently, ashamed  of  such  procedures.3  The  most  infamous  of  the 
early  emperors,  Caligula,  received  divine  honors  in  his  lifetime  by 
his  own  decree.4  Apart  from  these  particular  cases,  however,  the 
general  conception  of  the  possibility  of  a  man's  being  divine  had  a 
notable  effect  on  the  religious  development  in  the  Roman  Empire.5 
The  custom,  for  example,  of  burning  incense  before  the  Emperor's 
statue  (which  faithful  Christians  refused  to  do),  while  it  strength- 
ened the  idea  of  the  presence  of  the  divine  in  human  life,  doubt- 
less debased  it. 

348.  Deification  of  living  men  is  not  found  in  the  great  national 
religions  of  India  and  Persia.  Mazdaism,  like  Hebraism,  kept  the 
human  distinctly  apart  from  the  divine :  Ahura  Mazda  is  virtually 
absolute,  and  Zoroaster  and  the  succeeding  prophets,  including  the 
savior  Qaoshyanc,  are  men  chosen  and  appointed  by  him.6  Vedism 
developed  the  nature-gods,  and  in  Brahmanism  the  goal  of  the 
worshiper  was  union  with  the  divine,  but  not  independent  divinity ; 
the  muni  by  ascetic  observances  might  attain  a  power  equal  or 
superior  to  that  of  the  gods  and  feared  by  them,7  but  he  remained 
(like  the  old  magician)  a  powerful  man  and  did  not  receive  divine 
worship.8  In  recent  times  the  followers  of  the  Brahma-Samaj  leader 
Sen  are  said  to  have  worshiped  him  as  a  god9  —  apparently  an 
isolated  phenomenon,  the  origin  of  which  is  not  clear.    Buddha  was 

1  Appian,  Dc  Reims  Syrians,  Ixv.  2  Acts  xii,  22. 

3  Boissier,  La  religion  romaine  (1878),  i,  131  ff.         4  Suetonius,  Caligula,  xxii. 

5  On  the  demand  for  a  universal  religion  in  the  Roman  Empire,  and  the  prepara- 
tion in  the  earlier  cults  for  the  worship  of  the  emperors,  see  J.  Iverach's  article 
"  Caesarism  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics ;  Boissier,  op.  cit., 
bk.  i,  chap.  ii.  6  Spiegel,  Eranischc  Altcrilunnskiindc,  bk.  iv,  chap.  iii. 

7  See  the  story  of  the  power  and  fall  of  a  great  muni  in  Lassen's  Anthologia 
Sanscritica. 

8  So,  many  Christian  and  Moslem  saints  have  been  wonder-workers  without  being 
divinized.  9  Monier-Williams,  Brahmanism  and  Hinduism,  p.  510  f. 


EARLY  CULTS  147 

purely  human  to  himself  and  his  contemporaries.  The  ascription  of 
divinity  to  the  Tibetan  Grand  Lamas  is  a  product  of  the  transfor- 
mation of  Buddhism  under  the  influence  of  a  crude  non-Aryan  pop- 
ulation that  retained  the  old  conception  of  the  essential  identity  of 
nature  of  men  and  gods. 

349.  When  chiefs  and  kings  are  divinized,  offerings  are  usually 
made  to  them  as  to  other  gods ;  their  cult  becomes  a  part  of  the 
polytheistic  system.  But  it  is  rare  that  they  displace  the  old  local 
deities  or  equal  them  in  influence.  Their  worship  passes  with  the 
passing  of  polytheism. 

The  Cult  of  the  Dead 

350.  In  the  history  of  religion  the  veneration  of  the  dead,  as  is 
remarked  above,  is  more  widely  diffused  and  more  effective  than 
that  of  the  living.  We  may  distinguish  between  the  cult  of  known 
historical  persons  after  death  (which  is  closely  related  to  that  of 
living  men),  the  deification  of  mythical  ancestors,  and  the  worship 
of  ghosts. 

351.  Historical  persons.  In  simple  communities  commanding 
personalities  that  have  impressed  the  imagination  of  the  people  by 
proofs  of  power  and  by  conferring  benefits  on  communities  may 
not  unnaturally  receive  divine  honors  after  death.  Lyall  reports  a 
case  of  this  sort  in  recent  times  :  the  French  officer  Raymond  in 
Hyderabad  is  said  to  have  been  worshiped  as  a  god.1  Other  cases 
are  reported  as  occuring  in  Samoa  and  in  India.-  Rivers  mentions 
traditions  among  the  Todas  of  Southern  India  which,  he  thinks, 
may  vouch  for  the  worship  of  gods  who  were  originally  men,  but 
implicit  reliance  cannot  be  placed  on  such  traditions.3  Two  appar- 
ently definite  instances  of  deification  are  given  by  Ellis,4  both  of 
cruel  kings  (one  dethroned  in  18 18),  to  whom  temples  with  com- 
plete rituals  are  dedicated  ;  but  the  deification  in  one  of  these  cases 
(and  probably  in  the  other)  was  a  deliberate  act  of  political  leaders, 

1  Fortnightly  Review,  1S72. 

2  Stair,  Samoa,  p.  221  ;  article  "  Bengal"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion 
and  Ethics  (Brahmans  often  become  evil  spirits). 

3  The  Todas,  pp.  193,  203,  446.  4  The  Ewe-speaking  Peoples,  p.  SS  ff. 


I48     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

and  not  a  product  of  spontaneous  popular  feeling.  Two  other  local 
gods  mentioned  by  Ellis  were,  according  to  the  tradition,  two  men 
who  began  the  trade  that  made  Whydah  the  chief  port  of  the 
west  coast  of  Africa ;  but  here  also  the  tradition  is  not  perfectly 
trustworthy. 

352.  Egyptian  kings  were  regularly  deified  after  death,  being 
identified  with  Osiris ;  their  cult,  though  not  equal  in  sanctity  to 
that  of  the  gods  proper,  was  still  prominent  and  important.1  It  is 
probably  to  be  regarded  as  a  revision  and  magnification  of  the  cult 
of  the  dead  kin,  combined  with  the  desire  to  honor  great  repre- 
sentative men.  No  such  custom  is  known  to  have  existed  among 
Semitic  peoples,  by  whom  a  sharp  distinction  was  made  between 
the  divine  and  the  human.  In  India  it  was  chiefly  the  ascetic  sages 
that  were  religiously  eminent,  and  in  the  prevailing  pantheistic 
system  these  (as  is  remarked  above),  absorbing  the  divine  essence, 
sometimes  became  as  powerful  as  gods,  but  passed  after  death  into 
the  cosmic  All,  and  remained  human.  The  Mazdean  faith,  like  the 
Israelite,  made  it  impossible  to  accept  a  deceased  man  as  a  god. 

353.  Examples  of  the  occasional  divinization  of  deceased  men 
in  the  Hellenic  world  are  given  below.2  In  Rome  the  custom  arose 
at  a  comparatively  late  period,  and  it  was  the  work  not  of  spon- 
taneous Roman  thought  but  of  political  philosophy.3  The  deifica- 
tion of  the  Roman  emperors  after  death  had  its  ground  in  the 
reconstruction  of  Roman  life  undertaken  by  Augustus.  He  recog- 
nized a  principle  of  unification  in  the  resuscitation  of  the  old  national 
religion,  in  which  the  people  believed,  whether  he  himself  did  or 
not.  Religion  in  Rome  was  largely  an  affair  of  the  state;  the 
leaders  of  the  public  religion  were  great  state  officials.  Augustus 
was  made  pontifex  maximus,  and  it  was  only  one  step  farther  to 
elevate  the  chief  magistrate  to  the  rank  of  a  god.  The  good  sense 
of  the  time  generally  forbade  the  bestowment  of  this  honor  during 
the  imperator's  lifetime,  but  an  apotheosis  was  in  accord  with  the 
veneration  paid  to  the  manes  and  with  the  exalted  position  of  the 

1  Breasted,  Records  of  Ancient  Egypt.  2  §  357- 

3  Here,  as  in  the  case  of  the  divinization  of  living  men  (§  3^7  n.,  above),  outside 
suggestion  is  probable. 


EARLY  CULTS  149 

Emperor  as  absolute  lord  of  the  Western  world.1  Popular  feeling 
appears  to  have  accepted  this  divinization  without  question  and  in 
sincerity ;  educated  circles  accepted  it  as  an  act  of  political  policy. 
The  elevation  of  Julius  Caesar  and  Augustus  to  the  rank  of  gods 
established  the  rule,  and  deceased  emperors  received  divine  honors 
up  to  the  triumph  of  Christianity.2 

354.  In  China,  Confucius  was  deified  as  the  special  exponent  of 
the  state  religion  and  the  authoritative  teacher  of  the  principles  of 
social  and  political  life.  His  religious  cult  is  practiced  by  the  govern- 
ment (officially)  and  by  the  masses  of  the  people ;  how  far  it  is 
sincerely  accepted  by  the  educated  classes  is  uncertain.  In  China 
and  in  Japan  the  gods  of  war  are  said  to  be  historical  persons  deified. 

355.  The  divinization  of  the  Calif  Ali  by  some  Shiah  sects  was 
the  product  of  religious  fanaticism  under  the  guidance  of  Aryan 
conceptions  of  the  incarnation  of  the  divine.3 

356.  Mythical  ancestors.  Mythical  ancestors  are  usually  epony- 
mous ;  the  tendency  in  all  ancient  peoples  was  to  refer  their  names 
and  origins  to  single  persons.  Such  an  eponym  was  the  product  of 
imagination,  a  genealogical  myth  (Hellen,  Ion,  Dorus,  Jacob,  Israel), 
and  was  revered,  but  was  not  always  the  object  of  a  religious  cult ; 
such  cults  do  not  appear  among  the  Semites 4  or  in  the  native 
Roman  rites.  Nor  does  the  custom  seem  to  have  originated  in  the 
earliest  periods ;  it  was  rather  a  creation  of  quasi-scientific  reflec- 
tion, the  demand  for  definite  historical  organization,  and  it  appears 
first  in  relatively  late  literary  monuments.5 

357.  Still  later  arose  the  worship  of  these  ancestral  founders. 
In  Greece  shrines  were  erected  by  various  cities  to  their  supposed 
founders,  and  where,  as  in  Athens,  the  tribes  had  their  eponyms, 
these  received  divine  worship,  though  they  never  attained  equal 

1  Cf.  article  "  Caesarism  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  Boissier,  La  religion  romaine,  i,  182.  An  illustration  of  religious  ideas  in  the  third 
century  is  afforded  by  the  enrollment  of  Caracalla  among  the  heroes,  a  divinizing  de- 
cree of  the  Senate  having  been  extorted  by  the  turbulent  and  mercenary  soldiery  (Dio 
Cassius,  ed.  Boissevain  [Eng.  tr.  by  H.  B.  Foster],  lxxix,  9). 

3  A.  Miiller,  Islam,  i,  494  ;  W.  Muir,  The  Ca/i/ha/e,  p.  553  ff. 

4  In  Isa.  lxiii,  16,  'Abraham 'appears  to  be  a  synonym  of  'Israel,'  and  the  refer- 
ence then  is  to  the  nonrecognition  of  certain  Jews  by  the  national  leaders. 

6  The  narratives  of  the  Pentateuch  ;  Herodotus,  v,  66  ;  Pausanias,  i,  5,  1. 


150     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIOXS 

rank  with  the  gods  proper.  From  Greece  this  cult  was  brought  into 
Italy.  It  was  probably  under  Greek  influence,  and  at  a  relatively 
late  time,  that  Romulus  was  created,  made  the  immediate  founder 
of  Rome,  and  took  his  place  among  the  objects  of  worship;1  on  the 
other  hand,  ^Eneas  (a  Greek  importation),  though  he  was  accepted 
as  original  founder,  never  received  divine  worship,  doubtless  because 
Romulus  (nearer  in  name  to  the  city  Roma)  already  held  the  position 
of  divine  patron.  The  cult  of  eponyms  tended  naturally  to  coalesce 
with  that  of  divine  'heroes' 2  —  the  two  figures  were  alike  in  charac- 
ter, differing  mainly  in  function,  and  eponyms  were  styled  ' heroes.'3 
358.  The  inverse  process,  the  reduction  of  divine  beings  to 
simple  human  proportions,  has  gone  on  in  early  cults  and  in 
early  attempts  at  historical  construction  to  a  not  inconsiderable 
degree.  Thus,  to  take  a  relatively  late  example,  by  Saxo  Gram- 
maticus  and  in  the  Heimskringla  (both  of  the  thirteenth  century) 
the  god  Odin  is  made  into  a  human  king  and  the  history  of  his 
exploits  is  given  in  detail.4  It  is,  however,  especially  in  the  treat- 
ment of  the  old  divine  heroes,  originally  true  gods,  that  the  process 
of  dedivinization  appears.  These  figures,  because  of  their  local 
character  and  for  other  reasons,  entered  into  peculiarly  close  re- 
lations with  human  societies,  of  which  they  thus  tended  to  become 
constituent  parts,  and  the  same  feeling  that  gave  the  gods  human 
shapes  converted  the  heroes  into  mere  men,  who  are  generally 
reconstructers  of  society.  Examples  of  this  sort  of  anthropomor- 
phizing are  found  in  myths  all  over  the  world  :  the  Babylonian 
Gilgamesh ;  the  "  mighty  men  "  of  Genesis  vi,  4,  originally  demi- 
gods, the  progeny  of  human  mothers  and  of  the  Elohim-beings 
(the  Bene  Elohim,  '  sons  of  the  gods,'  members,  that  is,  of  the  di- 
vine circle)  ;  Heracles  and  Hercules  ;  the  Scandinavian  (apparently 
general  Teutonic)  Valkyrs,  Nomas,  and  Swan-maidens.5 

1  Article  "  Romulus"  in  Roschers  Lexikon.  2  See  below,  §  652. 

3  Herodotus,  v,  66  al.  4  Saussaye,  Religion  of  the  Teutons,  pp.  163,  170,  206. 

5  The  Ojibwa  god  Manabozho  (described  in  Schoolcraft's  Algic  Researches)  by- 
some  inadvertence  got  the  name  '  Hiawatha,'  and  so  appears  in  Longfellow's  poem. 
The  real  Hiawatha  was  a  distinguished  Iroquois  statesman  (supposed  to  be  of  the 
fifteenth  century),  the  founder  of  the  Iroquois  League,  honored  as  a  patriot,  but  never 
worshiped  as  a  god.  See  H.  Hale,  Iroquois  Book  of  Rites,  Index,  s.v.  Hiawatha; 
Beauchamp,  in  Journal  of  American  Folklore,  October,  1S91. 


EARLY  CULTS  151 

359.  The  Sicilian  Euhemeros  (of  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth 
century  B.C.),  after  extensive  travels  to  great  places  of  worship, 
formulated  the  theory  that  all  the  gods  were  deified  men.  Some 
grounds  for  his  theory  he  doubtless  had,  for,  according  to  ancient 
opinion,  gods  might  and  did  die,  and  their  places  of  burial  were 
sometimes  pointed  out  (the  grave  of  Zeus,  for  instance,  in  Crete). 
How  far  this  view  had  been  held  before  the  time  of  Euhemeros  is 
uncertain,  but  he  gave  it  vogue,  and  it  is  called,  after  him,  Euhe- 
merism.1  In  recent  times  it  has  been  revived  in  part  by  Herbert 
Spencer  and  Allen,  who  derive  all  gods  from  ghosts.2  Similar  to 
it  is  the  rationalizing  of  myths,  which  has  met  with  favor  at  vari- 
ous times. 

360.  The  dead  kin.  Apart  from  the  special  cases  mentioned 
above,  the  dead  have  been  the  objects  of  particular  care  in  all 
parts  of  the  world.  Some  of  the  observances  connected  with  them 
might  perhaps,  in  themselves  considered,  be  ascribed  to  natural 
affection.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  savages  have  some  love  of 
kindred,  and  this  feeling,  in  conjunction  with  the  ideas  concern- 
ing the  future  state,  might  lead  the  survivors  to  do  such  things 
as  it  was  believed  would  secure  the  comfort  of  the  deceased  — 
decent  burial  in  accordance  with  tribal  customs,  and  provision  of 
food  and  attendants  and  other  necessaries.  But,  while  the  exist- 
ence and  influence  of  natural  human  kindliness  need  not  be  denied, 
observation  of  savage  life  favors  the  conclusion  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  early  usages  connected  with  the  dead  have  their  origin 
in  the  desire  to  conciliate  them,  to  avert  their  displeasure  and  gain 
their  aid,  and  thus  come  to  constitute  a  cult  of  the  dead  that  runs 
through  all  phases  of  civilization.3 

361.  Such  usages  must  be  very  ancient,  for  they  are  found  in 
the  lowest  tribes,  and  appear  to  be  based  on  the  earliest  known 
conceptions  of  the  nature  of  departed  souls.4  These  latter  are  held 

1  F.  Pfister,  Dcr  Reliqidenkult  im  Altertitm. 

2  Spencer,  Principles  of  Sociology,  i;  Grant  Allen,  Evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God. 
See  below,  §  631  ff. 

3  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  A/oral  Ideas,  Index,  s.v.  Dead; 
Grant  Allen,  op.  cit. ;  article  "Ancestor-worship"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of 
Religion  and  Ethics.  4  Cf.  above,  Chap.  II. 


152     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

to  have  all  the  ordinary  affections  of  the  living,  but  to  be  endowed 
with  extraordinary  powers  :  they  have  their  likes  and  dislikes,  their 
kindliness,  jealousy,  anger,  revengefulness,  all  on  the  lower  moral 
grade  of  undeveloped  life ;  they  are,  in  many  regards,  not  subject 
to  the  ordinary  limitations  of  the  living  —  they  are  invisible,  move 
swiftly  from  place  to  place  through  obstacles  impervious  to  the 
living,  enter  their  bodies,  produce  sickness  and  death,  aid  or  de- 
stroy crops.  On  the  other  hand,  they  need  food  and  other  necessi- 
ties of  ordinary  life,  and  for  these  things  are  dependent  on  the  living. 
rfence  the  desirableness  of  securing  their  good  will  by  showing  them 
respect  and  supplying  their  needs,  or  else  of  somehow  getting  rid 
of  them. 

362.  There  are,  then,  two  sorts  of  ghosts,  or,  more  precisely, 
two  sorts  of  ghostly  activity  —  the  friendly  and  the  unfriendly  — 
and  corresponding  to  these  are  the  emotions  of  love  and  fear  which 
they  call  forth.  On  account  of  paucity  of  data  it  is  difficult  to  say 
which  of  these  emotions  is  the  commoner  among  savages  ;  probably 
the  feeling  is  a  mixed  one,  compounded  of  fear  and  friendliness.1 
In  general  it  is  evident  that  with  the  better  organization  of  family 
life  a  gentler  feeling  for  the  dead  was  called  forth ;  but  it  is  prob- 
able that  in  the  least-developed  communities  fear  of  the  mysterious 
departed  was  the  prevailing  emotion. 

363.  Though  the  accessible  evidence  does  not  enable  us  to  de- 
termine with  certainty  the  motives  of  all  savage  customs  connected 
with  the  dead,  there  are  some  distinctions  that  may  be  made  with 
fair  probability.  To  supply  the  dead  with  food  and  cooking-utensils 
may  very  well  be,  as  is  remarked  above,  the  impulse  of  affection, 
and  even  where  slaves  and  wives  are  slain  that  their  ghosts  may 
minister  to  the  ghost  of  the  master  and  husband,  this  may  not  go 
beyond  pious  solicitude  for  the  comfort  of  the  deceased.  But  the 
mourning-usages  common  with  savages  are  too  violent  to  be 
merely  the  expression  of  love ;  the  loucl  cries  and  the  wounding  of 

i  Steinmetz  (Ethnologische  Studicn  zur  ersten  Entwicklung  der  Strafe,  p.  2S0  ff .)  has 
attempted  a  collection  and  interpretation  of  the  usages  of  nearly  two  hundred  tribes, 
but  his  reckoning  is  not  satisfactory  —  his  enumeration  is  not  complete,  and  the  facts 
are  not  sufficiently  well  certified.  He  concludes  that  cases  of  fear  are  twice  as  numer- 
ous as  those  of  love. 


EARLY  CULTS  I  53 

the  person  are  meant  more  probably  to  assure  the  deceased  of  the 
high  regard  in  which  he  is  held  ;  *  in  some  cases,  as  among  the 
Central  Australians,  men  gash  themselves  so  severely  as  to  come 
near  producing  death.2  These  excessive  demonstrations  are  softened 
as  general  culture  increases,  and  finally  dwindle  to  an  apparatus  of 
hired  mourners.  A  similar  explanation  holds  of  the  restriction  of 
food,  the  seclusion  of  the  widow  or  the  widower,  and  the  rule  against 
mentioning  the  name  of  the  deceased :  abstinence  and  silence  are 
marks  of  respect. 

364.  Funeral  feasts  also  testify  respect:'5  they  appear  to  be 
extensions  of  the  practice  of  providing  food  for  the  dead,  feasts 
in  which  the  mourners,  from  motives  of  thriftiness,  take  part ; 
the  ghost  consumes  only  the  invisible  soul  of  the  food,  and  it  is 
proper  that  what  is  left  should  furnish  refreshment  for  the  living.4 
The  funeral  festivities  are  sometimes  protracted,  and  become  oc- 
casions of  enjoyment  to  the  circle  of  kinsfolk,  in  some  cases  at  a 
ruinous  expense  to  the  family  of  the  deceased,  as  is  true  now  some- 
times of  Irish  and  other  wakes.  The  honor  of  the  family  is  involved, 
and  this  fact,  together  with  the  natural  desire  for  pleasure,  has  con- 
tributed to  the  development  of  the  custom  in  savage  as  well  as  in 
civilized  life.  In  general  the  solemnity  of  the  various  ceremonies 
and  other  usages  testifies  to  a  profound  conviction  of  the  necessity 
of  keeping  on  good  terms  with  the  dead.5 

365.  The  reports  of  savage  customs  show  a  certain  number  of 
cases  in  which  the  benevolent  and  the  malevolent  activities  of  the 
dead  are  equally  prominent :  so,  for  example,  among  the  Austra- 
lian Kurnai,c  the  New  Zealanders,7  the  Melanesian  peoples,8  the 

1  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  chap.  xlv. 

2  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Northern   Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  pp.  516  f.,  520  f. 

3  Cf.  Codrington,  The  Melanesians,  p.  271  f. 

4  The  conception  of  such  meals  as  physical  and  spiritual  communion  with  the 
dead  was  a  later  development. 

5  The  buffoonery  that  was  sometimes  practiced  at  Roman  funerals  seems  to  have 
come  from  the  natural  love  of  fun,  here  particularly,  also,  through  the  reaction  from 
the  oppressive  solemnity  of  the  occasion. 

0  Howitt  and  Fison,  Kamilaroi  and  Kumai,  p.  24^  If. 

7  Taylor,  New  Zealand,  pp.  104,  108. 

8  Codrington,  The  Melanesians,  pp.  194.  255  f . ;  Powell,  Wanderings,  p.  170. 


154    INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Vezimbas  of  Madagascar,1  the  Zulus,2  the  Ewe-speaking  tribes  on  the 
west  coast  of  Africa.3  It  is  probable  that  the  list  might  be  greatly 
extended  by  exact  observation.  When  we  find  two  peoples,  dwell- 
ing near  together  and  of  the  same  grade  of  general  culture,  credited 
the  one  with  fear,  the  other  with  friendly  feeling  toward  the  dead, 
it  seems  likely  that  different  sets  of  usages  have  met  the  eyes  of 
the  observers-;  a  certain  amount  of  accident  must  color  such  reports. 

366.  It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  fear  of  ghosts  is  commoner 
among  less-developed  peoples,  kindly  feeling  more  usual  in  higher 
communities ;  and  when  civilized  peoples  are  taken  into  account 
this  sort  of  progression  is  obvious.  But  the  reports  of  savages 
show  such  a  mixture  of  customs  that  it  is  difficult  to  see  any  line 
of  progress.  Dread  of  ghosts  is  certified  in  Central  Australia  and 
North  Queensland,  in  Tonga  (Polynesia),  Central  Africa,  Central 
Asia,  among  the  North  American  Chippewas,  Navahos,  and  South- 
west Oregon  Indians,  and  the  South  American  Araucanians ;  friendly 
feeling  is  found  in  Tasmania,  Western  Africa,  South  Africa,  Cali- 
fornia, and  among  the  Iroquois  and  the  Zuni  Indians.4  In  such 
lists  there  is  no  clear  sign  of  a  division  according  to  general  culture. 

367.  Friendly  relations  with  the  dead  do  not  in  themselves  neces- 
sarily involve  worship,  but  a  more  or  less  definite  cult  of  ghosts  is 
found  in  various  parts  of  the  world.  They  are,  or  were,  regarded  as 
tutelary  spirits  in  Tasmania,  Ashanti,  and  Dahomi  (where  shrines 
are  dedicated  to  them),  and  by  the  Zuni  Indians ;  prayers  are  ad- 
dressed to  them  in  Samoa  and  the  Hawaiian  Islands  (where  there 
is  a  definite  family  worship),  in  Yoruba,  by  the  Banyas  and  the 
Zulus,  by  the  Ossetes,  the  Veddahs  of  Ceylon,  and  the  North 
American  Dakotas ;  offerings  are  made  to  them  —  sometimes  to 
influential  persons,  chiefs,  and  others,  as  in  the  Gilbert  Islands,  in 
parts  of  Melanesia,  in  Borneo,  and  by  the  Cakchiquels  of  Central 
America  —  sometimes  to  all  the  dead,  as  in  the  Solomon  Islands, 

1  Ellis,  Madagascar,  i,  23,  423.  2  Callaway,  The  Amazulu,  pp.  145,  151. 

3  A.  B.  Ellis,  The  Ewe,  p.  102  f. 

4  Steinmetz,  Ethnologische  Studien  zur  erst  en  Entwicklung  der  Strafe.   A.  L.  Kroe- 

ber  (in  Journal  of American  Folklore,  1904)  gives  an  account  of  a  'ghost-dance'  in 
Northwest  California,  the  object  of  which  was  said  to  be  that  the  dead  might  return, 
though  the  details  are  obscure. 


EARLY  CULTS  I  55 

the  New  Hebrides,  Fiji,  Torres  Straits,  and  by  the  Zulus,  the  Ved- 
dahs  of  Ceylon,  the  Kolarians  of  Bengal,  and  the  Ossetes.1 

368.  These  lists  include  peoples  of  very  different  grades  of  cul- 
ture ;  the  inference  suggested  is  that  the  cult  of  the  dead  is  of 
very  early  origin  —  its  basis  is  the  same  among  all  communities 
that  practice  it,  though  the  particular  ceremonies  of  worship  vary. 

369.  Besides  forms  of  actual  worship  there  are  several  usages 
that  involve  religious  veneration  of  the  dead.  Graves  are  regarded 
as  asylums  by  the  Kafirs  (graves  of  chiefs)  2  and  in  Tonga.3  The 
Bedawin  of  Arabia  held  (in  pre-Islamic  times),  and  still  hold,  graves 
sacred  ; 4  they  sometimes  become  shrines,  and  oaths  are  sworn  by 
them.  The  custom  of  swearing  by  the  dead  is  widespread.  In  their 
character  of  powerful  spirits  they  are  agents  in  processes  of  magic 
and  divination.  Parts  of  dead  bodies  are  used  as  charms.  The 
skull  especially  is  revered  as  an  oracle.5 

370.  Among  the  lower  tribes,  savage  and  half-civilized,  it  is 
chiefly  those  who  have  died  recently  that  arc  worshiped.  A  Zulu 
explained  to  Callaway  that  his  people  forgot  those  who  died  long 
ago  —  they  were  supposed  to  be  not  helpful  —  and  hope  of  gain 
has  always  been  the  basis  of  worship.  Among  the  Kafirs  of  the 
Hindu  Kush  it  is  the  custom  to  erect  an  effigy  to  the  memory  of 
every  adult  one  year  after  his  decease.  Women,  as  well  as  men, 
are  thus  honored,  and  may  be  put  on  an  equality  with  men  by 
being  given  a  throne  to  sit  on.  No  worship  is  offered  to  these 
images,  but  it  is  believed  that  their  presence  brings  prosperity; 
bad  weather  is  ascribed  to  their  removal.  There  are  solemn  dances 
in  honor  of  the  illustrious  dead  and  sacrifices  are  offered  to  them.6 

371.  The  worship  of  the  dead  in  the  great  civilized  communi- 
ties, though  more  elaborate  and  refined  than  the  savage  cult,  is  in 


1  Some  such  custom  seems  to  be  referred  to  in  Deut.  xxvi,  14. 

2  Fritsch,  Die  Eingeborenen  Si/,/-,  \frikas.  ;;  Mariner,  Tonga,  p.  149. 

4  Wellhausen,  Rcstc  arabischen  Heidentumes,  p.  162  f . ;  Goldziher,  in  Revue  de 
Vhistoire  des  religions,  x.   So  the  Egyptian  fellahin  to-day. 

5  Codrington,  The  Melanesians,  p.  219!  ;  Bonney,  m.  Journal  of  the  .  bithropological 
Institute,  xiii,  122  ff. ;  Haddon,  Head-hunters,  pp.  91  1'.,  183;  G.  Allen,  Evolution  of 
the  Idea  of  God,  chap.  iii. 

6  Sir  G.  S.  Robertson,  The  Kafirs  of  the  Hindu- Kush,  pp.  645  ff.,  615  ff.,  414  f. 


156     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

substance  identical  with  it.  The  Egyptians  provided  the  departed 
soul  with  food  and  honored  the  dead  man  with  laudatory  notices  of 
his  earthly  life  ;  the  royal  ancestor  of  a  king,  it  was  believed,  might 
act  as  mediator  between  him  and  the  gods.1  The  Babylonians, 
while"  they  lamented  the  departure  of  men  to  the  gloomy  exist- 
ence in  the  Underworld,  recognized  the  quasi-divine  power  of  the 
dead  and  addressed  prayer  to  them.'2  The  Hebrews  offered  food 
to  the  dead,  had  funeral  feasts,  and  consulted  ghosts  who  were 
regarded  as  divine.3  The  Hindu  "  fathers,"  though  kept  distinct 
from  the  gods,  were  yet  conceived  of  as  possessing  godlike  powers 
and  were  worshiped  as  gods.4  The  Persian  "forefathers"  (frava- 
s/iis),  particularly  the  manes  of  eminent  pious  men,  were  held  to 
be  bestowers  of  all  the  blessings  of  life ;  offerings  were  made  and 
prayers  addressed  to  them.5 

372.  Early  notices  of  a  cult  of  the  dead  among  the  Greeks  are 
scanty.  There  was  the  usual  kindly  provision  of  food,  arms,  and 
other  necessaries  for  them.6  Odysseus  in  Hades  pours  out  a  liba- 
tion (honey,  wine,  water,  to  which  meal  is  added)  to  all  the  dead, 
addresses  vows  and  prayers  to  them,  and  promises  to  offer  to  them 
a  barren  heifer  on  his  return  to  Ithaca,  and  a  black  sheep  separately 
to  Teiresias.7  From  the  sixth  century  onward  the  references  in  the 
literature  show  that  the  worship  of  the  dead  (including  children) 
was  then  general  (and  of  course  it  must  have  begun  much  earlier). 
The  offerings  made  to  them  were  both  vegetable  and  animal ;  the 
sacrificed  animal  was  slaughtered  in  the  same  way  as  in  the  sacri- 
fices to  chthonic  deities  —  the  dead  were,  in  fact,  regarded  as 
underground  deities.8  The  flesh  of  the  animals  offered  was  not 
eaten  by  the  worshipers. 

373.  Among  the  dead  thus  honored  is  to  be  included  one  class 
of  heroes.     A  Greek  "  hero  "  was  sometimes  an  eminent  man, 


1  Breasted,  Egypt,  p.  421,  etc. 

2  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  604  f. 

3  Deut.  xxvi,  14 ;  Hos.  ix,  4  ;  Ezek.  xxiv,  17  (revised  text)  ;  Isa.  viii,  19 ;  1  Sam. 
xxviii,  13.  4  Rig-Veda,  x,  15  ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  143  f. 

5  Spiegel,  Eranischc  Altcrihumskitndc,  ii,  91  ff. 

6  Odyssey,  xi,  74  ff. ;  cf.  xxiv,  63  ff.  7  Odyssey,  x,  5 19  ff. ;  xi,  25  ff. 
8  Stengel  and  Oehmichen,  Die  gricchischcn  Sakralaltertiimcr,  p.  99  f. 


EARLY  CULTS  I  57 

sometimes  such  a  man  divinized,  sometimes  an  old  god  reduced  to 
human  dimensions,  reckoned  in  some  cases  to  belong  to  the  circle 
of  the  gods  proper.1  Such  personages  might  be  worshiped  as  gods, 
with  the  sacrifices  appropriate  to  the  gods,  or  as  departed  men, 
with  the  sacrifices  that  custom  fixed  for  the  dead.  The  hero-cult 
included  many  men  of  note  recently  deceased,  like  Brasidas  and 
those  that  fell  at  Marathon.'2 

374.  The  cults  just  mentioned  dealt  with  the  departed  as  friendly 
souls,  the  protectors  of  the  family,  the  clan,  or  the  state.  The  state 
cult  of  the  dead  was  elaborate  and  solemn.  The  Greek  citizen  was 
surrounded  by  a  host  of  the  eminent  dead  who  kept  him  in  touch 
with  the  past  and  offered  him  ideals  of  life.3  Another  attitude 
toward  the  dead  is  indicated  by  the  great  apotropaic  spring  festival, 
the  Anthesteria  of  Athens,  the  object  of  which  was  to  rid  the  city 
of  the  ghosts  that  then  wandered  about.4  This  double  attitude  is 
precisely  that  of  the  savage  tribes  referred  to  above.  The  same 
difference  of  feeling  appears  in  the  Roman  cults  :  the  manes  are 
the  friendly  or  doubtful  souls  of  dead  ancestors ;  the  Parentalia  is 
a  festival  in  honor  of  the  dead  kin  ;  in  the  Lemuria,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  father  of  the  family  performs  a  ceremony  at  midnight 
intended  to  rid  the  house  of  ghosts.5 

375.  Among  modern  peoples  it  is  the  Chinese  that  have  organ- 
ized the  worship  of  the  dead  in  the  completest  way ;  it  is  for  them 
the  most  important  part  of  the  popular  religion.6  Similar  veneration 
of  ancestors  exists  in  Japan.7 

1  Gardner  and  Jevons,  Greek  Antiquities,  p.  158  ff. ;  Gruppe,  Griechischc  Mytho- 
logies Index,  s.v.  Heros;  Deneken,  article  "  Heros  "  in  Roscher,  Lexikon.  Lists  of 
heroes  are  given  by  F.  Pfister,  in  Dcr  Rcliquicnkult  i»i  Altertum. 

'2  Thucydides,  v,  11  ;  Pausanias,  i,  32.  For  other  examples,  and  for  the  details  of 
the  cult,  see  Stengel  and  Oehmichen,  Die  griechischen  Sakralaltertiimer,  p.  96  ff. 

3  Similar  functions  are  performed  by  saints  in  some  Buddhist,  Christian,  and 
Moslem  communities. 

4  Pauly-Wissowa,  Real-Encyclop'ddie  der  classtschen  Altertumswissenschaft ;  Miss 
J.  E.  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  chap,  ii,  and  the  references 
in  these  works.  On  the  Kcres  as  ghosts  see  Crusius,  in  Koscher's  Lexikon,  s.v. 
Keren,  and  Harrison,  op.  cit.,  chap.  v. 

5  Ovid,  Fasti,  v,  429  ff.,  manes  exite  patcrni;  cf.  the  Greek  proverbial  expression 
Bvpafr  /capes   (Suidas,  s.v.dvpafr).  G  De  Groot,  Religion  of  the  Chinese,  chap.  iii. 

"  Aston,  Shinto  ;  Knox,  Religion  in  Japan,  p.  66  f. 


158      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

376.  The  venerated  dead  stood  apart,  as  a  rule,  from  the  nature- 
spirits  and  the  gods,  but  these  different  classes  sometimes  coalesced, 
as  has  been  remarked  above,  in  popular  usage.  The  powers  and 
functions  of  the  dead  were  not  essentially  different  from  those  of 
the  divinities  proper,  particularly  in  the  simpler  stages  of  society. 
They  were  able  to  bestow  all  the  blessings  and  to  inflict  all  the 
misfortunes  of  life.  In  process  of  time  the  advance  of  knowledge 
relegated  them  to  a  subordinate  place,  but  they  long  retained  a 
considerable  importance  as  friends  of  families  and  states,  as  dis- 
seminators of  disease,  and  as  predictors  of  human  fortunes. 

377.  In  the  exercise  of  these  functions  they  were  often  not  to 
be  distinguished  from  the  higher  and  lower  deities.  King  Saul,  on 
the  eve  of  a  great  battle,  having  failed  to  get  an  answer  from  the 
national  deity  by  the  ordinary  legitimate  methods,  had  recourse  to 
necromancy  and  obtained  from  the  ghost  of  Samuel  the  informa- 
tion that  Yahweh  had  refused  to  give.1  The  Greek  keres  and  the 
wandering  ghosts  of  West  Africa  do  exactly  what  is  ascribed  to 
the  malefic  spirits  of  Babylonia."2  Examples  of  such  identity  of 
function  between  the  various  superhuman  Powers  are  found  all 
over  the  world. 

378.  This  fact  does  not  show  that  these  Powers  have  the  same 
origin.  The  savage  accepts  agents  in  human  life  wherever  he  can 
find  them  —  in  beings  inhabiting  mountains,  rocks,  trees,  caves, 
springs,  and  in  the  souls  of  departed  men.  Doubtless  he  thinks 
of  the  forms  of  these  various  actors  as  being  all  of  the  same  sort,  a 
sublimated  manlike  body  ;  but  he  keeps  them  in  different  categories, 
and  in  the  course  of  time  the  tendency  is  for  ghosts  and  spirits  to 
sink  out  of  sight  and  for  the  gods  to  absorb  all  extrahuman  activities. 

379.  The  ethical  power  of  the  cults  so  far  discussed  resides  in 
the  human  association  to  which  they  give  rise  and  the  sanctions  they 
supply  to  conduct.  Of  these  two  effects  the  former  is  the  more 
important.  The  moral  character  of  a  ghost  or  spirit  or  deity  never 
rises  above  that  of  its  circle  of  worshipers :  its  approval  or  disap- 
proval is  the  echo  of  current  usage,  and  has  special  efficiency  only 
in  the  accompanying  power  of  reward  or  punishment ;  it  appeals 

1  i  Sam.  xxviii.        2  Cf.  also  the  Teutonic  valkyrs  and  nomas. 


EARLY  CULTS  I  59 

to  the  hopes  and  fears  of  men.  This  police  function  is  doubtless 
valuable  in  restraining  from  crime  and  inciting  to  good  conduct,  but 
it  has  no  regenerative  power.  The  enlargement  of  human  associ- 
ation, on  the  other  hand,  increases  sympathy  and  cooperation  among 
men,  and  paves  the  way  to  the  cultivation  of  the  mutual  respect  and 
regard  which  is  the  basis  of  social  virtue. 

380.  Among  the  lower  cults  ancestor-worship  may  be  expected 
to  take  the  highest  place,  for  the  reason  that  it  tends  to  strengthen 
family  unity  and  the  solidarity  of  the  clan,  tribe,  or  nation  ;  all  such 
knitting  together  of  men  makes  for  the  increase  of  honesty  and 
kindliness.  The  data  are  lacking,  however,  for  the  determination 
of  this  point.  It  may  be  said  in  general  that  the  attitude  toward 
the  dead  becomes  finer  with  advance  in  civilization  ;  but  before  a 
specific  moral  power  in  ancestor-worship  can  be  proved,  it  will  be 
necessary  to  have  exact  details  of  moral  ideas  and  conduct  in  all 
the  lower  tribes,  together  with  some  information  regarding  the  atti- 
tude of  individuals  toward  questions  of  conduct,  and  the  motives 
that  impel  toward  this  or  that  action.  The  question  of  ethical 
growth  in  society  is  a  complicated  one,  and  the  most  that  can 
be  said  for  any  element  of  social  constitution  is  that  it  tends  to 
strengthen  or  weaken  the  individual's  confidence  in  and  regard 
for  his  fellows. 

381.  The  part  played  in  religious  history  by  the  worship  of  the 
dead  is  so  important  that  some  writers  have  derived  all  religion 
from  it.1  This  view  is  now  generally  rejected  for  the  reason  that  it 
does  not  accord  with  known  facts  ;  it  is  only  by  forced  (though  often 
ingenious)  interpretations  that  a  plausible  case  is  made  out  for  it. 
To  reply  in  detail  to  the  arguments  advanced  in  its  favor  would  be 
to  go  over  the  whole  ground  of  the  origin  of  religious  observances; 
the  answer  is  furnished  by  setting  forth  the  nature  of  the  various 
cults,  as  is  attempted  in  this  and  following  chapters.  If,  for  exam- 
ple, there  is  reason  to  believe  that  savages  have  always  regarded  the 
lower  animals  as  powerful  beings,  there  is  no  need,  in  accounting 

1  See  above,  §  359.  The  wide  prevalence  of  the  theory  in  ancient  times  is  indi- 
cated by  its  adoption  in  the  Graeco-Jevvish  Wisdom  of  Solomon  (of  the  first  century 
B.  c),  chap,  xiv,  and  by  some  Roman  writers. 


160     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

for  the  veneration  given  them,  to  resort  to  the  roundabout  way  of 
assuming  a  misinterpretation  of  names  of  men  derived  from  beasts. 

382.  Between  Euhemerism  and  the  theory  that  explains  myths 
asa"  disease  of  language  "  there  is  little  or  no  essential  difference 
of  principle.  Both  theories  assume  that  man,  having  devised  cer- 
tain epithets,  later  came  to  misunderstand  them  and  to  build  up 
histories  on  the  misunderstanding.  Both  thus  rest  the  immense 
mass  of  human  religious  customs  and  beliefs,  which  form  so  large 
a  part  of  human  history,  on  the  precarious  foundation  of  passing 
fancy  and  inadvertence,  and  they  must  be  put  into  the  same  cate- 
gory with  the  naive  theory,  once  popujar,  that  religion  is  the  inven- 
tion of  priests  who  sought  to  control  men  through  their  fears. 

383.  Ancestor-worship  is  the  feeling  of  kinship  with  the  dead, 
invested  by  religion  with  peculiar  intensity  and  solemnity.  It  has 
been  one  of  the  great  constructive  forces  of  society. 

Cults  of  Generative  Powers 

384.  The  origin  of  religion  is  not  to  be  referred  exclusively  to 
any  one  order  of  ideas;  it  springs  out  of  man's  total  life.  All 
objects  and  processes  have  been  included  in  men's  construction  of 
nature,  and  the  processes,  when  they  have  been  held  to  bear  on 
human  well-being,  have  been  ascribed  to  a  force  inherent  in  things 
or  to  the  activity  of  supernatural  beings. 

385.  The  study  of  processes  has  gone  hand  in  hand  with  the 
creation  of  divine  beings  who  are  supposed  to  manifest  themselves 
in  the  processes.  The  great  spectacle  of  nature's  productivity  has 
been  especially  recognizable  in  the  vegetable  world  and  in  the  world 
of  man ;  in  both  of  these  life  has  been  perpetually  unfolding  itself 
under  men's  eyes  as  a  mysterious  process,  which,  by  virtue  of  its 
mysteriousness,  has  become  religious  material  and  has  entered  into 
systems  of  religious  worship. 

386.  The  relation  of  vegetable  life  to  religious  cults  is  referred 
to  elsewhere,1  and  a  brief  survey  may  now  be  given  of  usages  and 
ideas  that  have  been  connected  with  the  production  of  human  life. 

i  §  262  ff. 


EARLY  CULTS  161 

387.  It  is  obvious  that  not  all  customs  that  include  the  func- 
tion of  generation  are  of  the  nature  of  religious  observances.  The 
promiscuity  that  obtains  in  many  savage  communities  before  mar- 
riage is  a  naive  unreflective  animal  procedure.  Exchange  of  wives 
(as  in  Central  Australia)  and  the  offering  of  a  wife  to  a  guest  are 
matters  of  social  etiquette.  Festivals  in  which  sexual  license  is  the 
rule  are  generally  merely  the  expression  of  natural  impulses.  Holi- 
days, being  times  of  amusement,  are  occasions  used  by  the  people 
for  the  satisfaction  of  all  appetites  :  there  is  eating  and  drinking, 
buffoonery,  disregard  of  current  conventions,  unbounded  liberty  to 
do  whatever  exuberant  animalism  prompts.  Such  festivities  abound 
among  existing  savages,1  were  not  uncommon  in  ancient  civilized 
times,2  and  have  survived  in  diminished  form  to  the  present  day.3 
In  the  course  of  time  they  often  become  attached  to  the  worship  of 
gods,  are  organized,  explained  by  myths,  and  sanctified.  In  such 
cases  of  coalescence  we  must  distinguish  between  the  true  wor- 
ship offered  to  a  divine  being,  and  the  observances,  generally  origi- 
nating in  desire  for  animal  amusement  and  enjoyment,  that  have 
been  attached  to  them. 

388.  Cult  of  generative  organs.  Men's  attention  must  have  been 
directed  very  early  to  those  organs  that  were  believed  to  be  con- 
nected with  the  genesis  of  human  life.  At  what  stage  this  belief 
arose  it  is  hardly  possible  to  say ;  there  are  peoples  among  whom 
it  seems  not  to  exist ; 4  but  it  is  found  over  a  great  part  of  the 
world,  and  was  doubtless  an  outcome  of  popular  observation.5 
As  it  was  intimately  connected  with  life  it  passed  naturally  into 
the  domain  of  religion,  and  in  process  of  time  became  a  more  or 
less  prominent  part  of  religious  observances ;  the  organs  in  ques- 
tion, both  male  and  female,  became  objects  of  religious  devotion. 

389.  Here  again  it  must  be  noted  that  not  all  usages  con- 
nected with  the  organs  of  generation  were  religious  of  origin.    It 

1  For  example,  in  Australia,  Fiji,  New  Guinea,  and  India. 

2  Greece,  Rome  (Lupercalia),  Egypt,  and  apparently  in  Israel  (Ex.  xxxii.  6; 
Numb.  xxv).       3  In  carnivals  and  many  less  elaborate  customs.       4  See  above,  §  34. 

5  It  was  observable  in  the  lower  animals,  but  in  their  case  was  not  regarded 
as  religiously  important.  See  below,  §  419,  for  the  connection  of  animals  with 
phallic  cults. 


162     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

is  pointed  out  above  x  that  the  origin  of  circumcision  and  excision 
is  to  be  sought  in  another  direction.  Ithyphallic  images  are  some- 
times merely  attempts  at  realism  in  art ;  a  nude  figure  (as  in 
modern  art)  must  be  represented  in  its  full  proportions.  Such 
seems  to  be  the  nature  of  certain  images  among  the  Western 
Bantu,2  and  this  may  have  been  the  case  with  the  images  of  the 
Egyptian.  Khem  and  Osiris  and  similar  deities.  In  general  this  sort 
of  representation  in  savage  and  ancient  civilized  communities  is 
often  either  simple  realism  or  indecency.  Folk-stories  abound  in 
details  that  sound  indecent  to  modern  ears,  but  were  for  the  authors 
often  merely  copies  of  current  usages. 

390.  All  important  members  of  the  human  body  have  been 
regarded  as  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  sacred,  their  importance 
depending  on  their  subservience  to  man's  needs.  The  head  of  an 
enemy  gives  the  slayer  wisdom  and  strength ;  an  oath  sworn  by 
the  head  or  beard  of  one's  father  is  peculiarly  binding ;  the  heart, 
when  eaten,  imparts  power ;  a  solemn  oath  may  be  sworn  by  the 
sexual  organs.  In  no  case  does  the  sacredness  of  an  object  neces- 
sarily involve  its  worship ;  whether  or  not  it  shall  receive  a  true 
cult  depends  on  general  social  considerations. 

391.  Though  phallic  cults  proper  cannot  be  shown  to  be  uni- 
versal among  men,  they  have  played  a  not  inconsiderable  part  in 
religious  history.  They  appear  to  have  passed  through  the  usual 
grades  of  development  —  simple  at  first,  later  more  complicated. 
The  attitude  of  savages  and  low  communities  generally,  non-Chris- 
tian and  Christian,  toward  the  phallus,  suggests  that  in  the  earliest 
stage  of  the  cult  some  sort  of  worship  was  paid  the  physical  object 
itself  considered  as  a  creator  of  life  ;  satisfactory  data  on  this  point, 
however,  are  lacking.  It  was  at  so  early  a  period  that  it  was 
brought  into  cultic  connection  with  supernatural  beings  that  its 
initial  forms  escape  us. 

392.  It  seems  not  to  exist  now  among  the  lowest  peoples. 
There  are  no  definite  traces  of  it  in  the  tribes  of  Oceania,  Cen- 
tral Africa,  Central  Asia,  and  America.  The  silence  of  explorers 
on  this  point  cannot  indeed   be   taken   as   proof   positive   of   its 

1  §  158  ff.         *  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  ii,  361. 


EARLY  CULTS  1 6 3 

nonexistence ;  yet  the  absence  of  distinct  mention  of  it  in  a  great 
number  of  carefully  prepared  works  leads  us  to  infer  that  it  docs 
not  play  an  important  part  in  the  religious  systems  therein  de- 
scribed.1 It  seems  to  require,  for  its  establishment,  a  fairly  well- 
developed  social  and  political  organization.  Some  of  the  tribes 
named  above  have  departmental  deities,  mostly  of  a  simple  sort, 
but  apparently  it  has  not  occurred  to  them  to  isolate  this  particular 
function,  which  they  probably  regarded  as  a  familiar  part  of  the 
order  of  things  and  not  needing  special  mention.  The  gift  of 
children  was  in  the  hands  of  the  local  god,  a  generally  recognized 
part  of  his  duty  as  patron  of  the  tribe,  and  all  sexual  matters  natu- 
rally might  be  referred  to  him.  Also,  as  is  remarked  above,  in 
certain  tribes  there  was  no  knowledge  of  the  connection  between 
the  birth  of  children  and  the  union  of  the  sexes,2  and  such  tribes 
would  of  course  ascribe  no  creative  power  to  the  phallus. 

393.  The  best  example  of  a  half-civilized  phallic  cult  is  that 
which  is  now  practiced  in  Yoruba  and  Dahomi,  countries  with 
definite  government  and  institutions.  The  cult  is  attached  to  the 
worship  of  a  deity  (Elegba  or  Legba),  who  appears  to  be  a  patron 
of  fertility ;  the  phallus  occupies  a  prominent  place  on  his  tem- 
ples, and  its  worship  is  accompanied  by  the  usual  licentious  rites.3 
These  are  expressions  of  popular  appetite,  and  it  does  not  ap- 
pear that  the  cult  itself  is  otherwise  religiously  significant. 

394.  In  modern  India  the  Qivaite  phallicism  is  pronounced  and 
important.  The  linga  is  treated  as  a  divine  power,  and,  as  pro- 
ducer of  fertility,  is  especially  the  object  .of  devotion  of  women  ; 4 
though  (Jivaism  has  its  rites  of  unbridled  bestialism,  the  worship  of 

1  See  Ratzel,  History  of  Mankind  \  Waitz,  Anthropologic  der  Naturvolker\  Miilier, 
Amerikanische  Urreligionen;  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Aus- 
tralia; Codrington,  The  Melanesians\  W.  Ellis,  Polynesian  Researches ;  Ilartland, 
article  "  Bantu  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics  ;  Callaway,  Ama- 
zidns;  Featherman,  Races  of  Mankind;  Griinwedel,"Lamaismus"  in  Die  orientalischen 
Religionen  (I,  iii,  1.  of  Die  Kidtur  der  Gegenwart)  ;  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  \\  'orld, 
p.  i^o;  Matthews,  Dorsev.  Teit,  Boas,  Hill-Tout,  opp.  cit.  (en  American  Indians). 

-  §  M- 

3  A.  B.  Ellis,  Yoruba  and  Ewe.    Ellis  does  not  say  that  the  cult  exists  in  Ashanti, 
where  we  should  expect  it  to  be  found;  its  absence  there  is  not  accounted  for.    On 
phallic  worship  in  Congo  see  H.  II.  Johnston,  in  Journal  of  the  Anthrop  . 
Institute,  xiii.  •»  Hopkins,  Religious  of  India,  pp.  455.  470. 


1 64      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  linga  by  women  is  often  free  from  impurity ;  it  is  practically 
worship  of  a  deity  of  fertility.  The  origin  of  the  Indian  cult  is  not 
clear.  As  it  does  not  appear  in  the  earliest  literature,  it  has  been 
supposed  to  have  come  into  Aryan  worship  from  non-Aryan  tribes. 
Whatever  its  origin,  it  is  now  widely  observed  in  Aryan  India,  and 
has  been  adopted  by  various  outlying  tribes.1 

395.  While  it  is,  or  was,  well  established  in  Japan,  it  apparently 
has  had  no  marked  influence  on  the  religious  thought  of  the  people. 
Phallic  forms  abound 2  in  the.  land,  in  spite  of  repressive  measures 
on  the  part  of  the  government,  but  the  cult  partakes  of  the  gen- 
eral looseness  of  the  Shinto  organization  of  supernatural  Powers. 
It  is  said  to  have  been  adopted  in  some  cases  by  Buddhists.  It 
appears  to  have  been  combined  with  Shinto  at  a  very  early  (half- 
civilized)  time,  for  which,  however,  no  records  exist. 

396.  It  is  among  the  great  ancient  civilized  peoples  that  the 
most  definite  organization  of  phallic  cults  is  found. 

397.  For  Egypt  there  is  the  testimony  of  Herodotus,3  who 
describes  a  procession  of  women  bearing  small  phallic  images  and 
singing  hymns  in  honor  of  a  deity  whom  he  calls  Dionysos  — 
probably  Khem  or  Osiris  or  Bes ;  such  images  are  mentioned  by 
Plutarch,4  supposed  by  him  to  represent  Osiris.  Both  Khem  and 
Osiris  were  great  gods,  credited  with  general  creative  power,  and 
popular  ceremonies  of  a  phallicistic  nature  might  easily  be  attached 
to  their  cults.  Bes,  a  less  important  deity,  seems  to  have  been 
fashioned  largely  by  popular  fancy.  These  ceremonies  were  doubt- 
less attended  with  license,5  but  they  probably  formed  no  part  of 
Egyptian  serious  worship.  The  phallus  was  essential  in  a  realistic 
image,  but  it  appears  to  have  been  regarded  simply  as  a  physical 
part  of  the  god  or  as  an  emblem  of  him  ;  there  is  no  evidence 
that  worship  was  addressed  to  it  in  itself. 

398.  The  evidence  that  has  been  adduced  for  a  cult  of  the  phal- 
lus among  Semitic  peoples  is  of  a  doubtful  nature.    No  ithyphallic 

1  Cf.  Crooke,  article  "  Bengal"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  Griffis,  Religions  of  Japan  ;  Aston,  Shinto  ;  Buckley,  in  Saussaye,  Lehrbnch  der 
Religionsgeschichte,  2d  ed. ;  Florenz,  in  Die  Kultur  der  Gegemvart. 

3  Herodotus,  ii,  48  f.  4  I  sis  and  Osiris,  51. 

5  An  example  of  naive  popular  festivities  is  given  in  Herodotus,  ii,  60. 


EARLY  CULTS  1 65 

images  or  figures  of  gods  have  been  found.  Religious  prostitution 
there  was  in  all  North  Semitic  lands,1  but  this  is  a  wholly  different 
thing  from  a  phallicistic  cult.  It  is  supposed,  however,  by  not  a  few 
scholars  that  descriptions  and  representations  of  the  phallus  occur 
in  so  many  places  as  to  make  some  sort  of  cult  of  the  object  prob- 
able. In  a  passage  of  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  descriptive  of  a  foreign 
cult  practiced,  probably,  by  some  Jews,  the  phallus,  it  is  held,  is 
named."2  The  passage  is  obscure.  The  nature  and  origin  of  the  cult 
referred  to  are  not  clear ;  it  is  not  elsewhere  mentioned.  The  word 
(yad,  usually  'hand')  supposed  to  mean  'phallus'  is  not  found 
in  this  sense  elsewhere  in  the  Old  Testament  or  in  later  Hebrew 
literature.  But,  if  the  proposed  rendering  be  adopted,  the  refer- 
ence will  be  not  to  a  cult  of  the  phallus  but  to  sexual  intercourse, 
a  figurative  description  of  idolatry. 

399.  A  distinct  mention  of  phalli  as  connected  with  religious 
worship  occurs  in  Pseudo-Lucian's  description  of  the  temple  of  a 
certain  goddess  at  Hierapolis.3  He  gives  the  name  to  enormously 
high  structures  standing  in  the  propylaea  of  the  temple,  but  men- 
tions no  details  suggesting  a  phallic  cult.  Twice  a  year,  he  says, 
a  man  ascends  one  of  them,  on  the  top  of  which  he  stays  seven 
days,  praying,  as  some  think,  for  a  blessing  on  all  Syria  —  a  pro- 
cedure suggesting  that  the  pillar  was  simply  a  structure  consecrated 
to  the  deity  of  the  place  (probably  Atargatis,  who  is  often  called  "  the 
Syrian  goddess  ")  4.  However,  if  there  was  a  phallic  cult  there  (the 
phallus  being  regarded  as  a  symbol  of  the  productive  function  of 
the  deity),  it  is  not  certain  that  it  was  Semitic.  Hierapolis  had  long 
been  an  important  religious  center  in  a  region  in  which  Asiatic  and 
Greek  worships  were  influential,  and  foreign  elements  might  easily 
have  become  attached  to  the  worship  of  a  Semitic  deity.    The  cult 


1  The  Gilgamesh  epic  (Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  477)  ;  Amos 
ii,  7  ;  Deut.  xxiii,  17  f. ;  Herodotus,  i,  199  ;  Strabo,  xvi,  1,  20  ;  Epistle  of  Jeremy,  42  f. : 
Lucian,  Dc  Syria  Dca,  6  ff.  But  Hos.  ii,  Ezek.  xvi,  xxiii,  Isa.  lvii,  8,  are  descriptions 
of  Hebrew  addiction  to  foreign  idolatrous  cults. 

2  Isa.  lvii,  S  :  "  Thou  didst  love  their  bed,  the  yad  thou  sawest."  The  renderings 
in  the  English  Revised  Version  are  not  possible.  3  Lucian,  op.  cit.,  28,  cf.  16. 

4  The  Aramean  Atargatis,  properly  Attar-Ate,  is  substantially  identical  with  Ash- 
tart  and  Ishtar. 


1 66     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

of  the  Asian  Great  Mother  (whom  the  Greeks  identified  with  their 
Leto)  had  orgiastic  elements.  Lucian's  reference  to  a  custom  of 
emasculation  suggests  Asian  features  at  Hierapolis.1 

400.  In  Babylonia  and  Palestine  stones,  held  by  some  to  be 
phalli,  have  been  found.2  While  the  shape  of  some  of  these  objects 
and  their  occurrence  at  shrines  may  be  supposed  to  lend  support 
to  this  view,  its  correctness  is  open  to  doubt.  There  is  no  docu- 
mentary evidence  as  to  the  character  of  the  objects  in  question, 
and  they  may  be  explained  otherwise  than  as  phalli.  But,  if  they 
arc  phalli,  their  presence  does  not  prove  a  phallic  cult  —  they  may 
be  votive  objects,  indicating  that  the  phallus  was  regarded  as  in 
some  sort  sacred,  not  that  it  was  worshiped.  Decision  of  the 
question  may  be  reserved  till  more  material  has  been  collected. 
There  is  no  sufficient  ground  for  regarding  the  stone  posts  that 
stood  by  Hebrew  shrines  as  phallic  symbols ;  they  are  naturally 
explained  as  sacred  stones,  originally  embodying  a  deity,  later 
attached  to  his  shrines  as  traditional  objects  entitled  to  veneration.3 

401.  In  Asia  Minor  and  the  Hellenic  communities  (both  in 
Ionia  and  in  Greece  proper)  the  phallicistic  material  is  extensive 
and  complicated.  A  symbolic  signification  appears  to  have  been 
superimposed  on  early  realistic  anthropomorphic  figures  that  were 
simply  images  of  supernatural  Powers.  In  various  regions  such 
figures  came  to  be  associated  with  the  generative  force  of  nature 
in  human  birth,  and  the  tendency  to  specialization  assigned  these 
divine  beings  special  functions ;  of  this  nature,  probably,  were  the 
local  Athenian  deities  Orthanes,  Konisalos,  and  others.4  At  a  later 
period  such  functions  were  attributed  to  the  well-developed  gods 
of  fertility ;  rituals  sprang  up  and  were  explained  by  myths,  and 
various  combinations  and  identifications  were  made  between  the 
prominent  gods. 

1  Lucian,  Dc  Syria  Dca,  15. 

2  J.  P.  Peters,  Nippur,  Index,  s.v.  Phallic  symbols;  Bliss  and  Macalister,  Exca- 
vations in  Palestine,  p.  136;  Macalister,  Bible  Side-lights,  p.  72  f. 

3  These  objects  (Hebrew  masscba)  are  denounced  by  the  prophets  because  they 
were  connected  with  the  Canaanite  non-Yahwistic  worship.  The  same  thing  is  true 
of  the  sacred  wooden  post  (the  asherd)  that  stood  by  shrines  :  Deut.  xvi,  21  f.,  etc. 

4  Koscher,  Lcxikon,  s.v.  Priapos.  Diodorus  Siculus,  iv,  6,  mentions  also  Ithy- 
phallos  and  Tychon. 


EARLY  CULTS  167 

402.  The  most  interesting  figure  of  this  character  is  Priapos, 
an  ithyphallic  deity  of  uncertain  origin ;  his  special  connection 
was  with  Lampsakos,  and  he  may  have  been  an  Asian  creation. 
From  the  variety  of  his  functions  (he  was  patron  of  gardens  and 
viticulture,  of  sailors  and  fishermen,  and  in  some  places  a  god  of 
war)1  it  may  be  surmised  that  he  was  originally  a  local  deity,  charged 
with  the  care  of  all  human  interests,  in  an  agricultural  community 
the  patron  of  fertility,  and  at  some  time,  and  under  circumstances 
unknown  to  us,  especially  connected  with  sexual  life.  Whatever 
his  origin,  his  cult  spread  over  Greece,  he  was  identified  with  cer- 
tain Greek  deities,  licentious  popular  festivals  naturally  attached 
themselves  to  his  worship,  and  his  name  became  a  synonym  of  sex- 
ual passion.  In  the  later  time  the  pictorial  representations  of  him 
became  grossly  indecent ;  his  cult  was  an  outlet  for  popular  and 
artistic  license.2  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  higher  thought  he  was 
made  the  representative  of  the  production  of  universal  animal  life, 
and  rose  to  the  rank  of  a  great  god.3 

403.  The  Greek  deities  with  whom  Priapos  was  oftenest  identi- 
fied were  Dionysos  and  Hermes  —  both  gods  of  fertility.  They, 
as  great  gods  of  such  a  nature,  would  naturally  absorb  lesser  phalli- 
cistic  figures ;  but  they  were  specialized  in  other  directions,  and 
Priapos  remained  as  the  distinctest  embodiment  of  phallicistic  con- 
ceptions. Other  such  figures,  as  Pan,  Titans,  Sileni,  and  Satyrs, 
were  beings  connected  with  fields,  woods,  and  mountains,  products 
of  a  low  form  of  civilization,  to  whom  realistic  forms. and  licentious 
festivals  naturally  attached  themselves. 

404.  Rome  had  its  native  ithyphallic  deity,  Mutunus  Tutunus  (or 
Mutinus),  a  naive  symbol  of  generative  power.4  Little  is  known  of 
his  cult  beyond  the  fact  that  he  figured  in  marriage  ceremonies 
in  a  peculiarly  indecent  way  ;  by  later  writers  he  is  sometimes  iden- 
tified with  Priapos.5  The  Romans  adopted  the  cult  of  Priapos  as 
well  as  other  phallicistic  forms  of  worship  ;  his  original  character 
appears  in  his  role  of  patron  of  gardens. 

1  Roscher,  Lexikon.        -  S.  Seligmann,  Der  hose  Blick  und  Verwandtes,  ii,  191  ff. 

3  Diodorus  Siculus,  i,  88. 

4  Roscher,  Lexikon,  s.v.  Indigitamenta.   Muto  is  '  phallos.' 

5  So  Augustine,  Dc  Civitate  Dei,  iv,  n,  34  al. 


168     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

405.  Phalli  as  amulets  occur  in  all  parts  of  the  world;  as  sym- 
bols and  perhaps  as  abodes  of  deities,  they  have  been  held  potent 
to  ward  off  all  evils.1 

406.  The  female  organ  (yoni,  kteis)  appears  frequently  in  figures 
of  female  deities,  ordinarily  without  special  significance,  religious  or 
other,  except  as  a  sign  of  sex.  In  the  rare  cases  in  which  it  is  the 
object  of  religious  veneration  (as  in  India)  it  is  subordinated  to  the 
phallos 2  —  there  is  little  or  no  evidence  for  the  existence  of  a  yonis- 
tic  cult  proper.3  Female  deities  act  as  fully  formed  anthropomorphic 
Powers,  embodiments  of  the  productive  energies  of  nature ;  they 
are  generally  treated  as  persons,  without  special  reference  to  bodily 
parts.  The  most  definite  formulation  of  this  conception  appears 
in  Qaktism,  the  worship  of  the  female  principle  in  nature  as  rep- 
resented by  various  goddesses,  often  accompanied,  naturally,  by 
licentious  rites.4 

407.  Androgynous  deities  represent  attempts  to  combine  in  a 
single  person  the  two  sides  of  the  productive  power  of  nature. 
Such  attempts  are  relatively  late,  implying  a  considerable  degree  of 
reflection  and  organization  ;  how  early  they  began  we  have  not  the 
data  to  determine.  They  are  not  found  among  savage  or  half- 
civilized  peoples. 

408.  In  Semitic  lands  no  artistic  representations  of  a  bisexual 
deity  are  now  known,  but  evidence  is  adduced  to  show  that  this 
conception  existed  in  early  times.  It  has  been  sought  in  two  old 
Babylonian  inscriptions  published  by  the  British  Museum.5  The 
first  of  these  (written  in  Sumeriari)  reads  :  "  For  [or,  in  honor  of] 
the  (divine)  king  of  countries,  the  (divine)  Nana  [Ishtar],  the  lady 
Nana,  Lugaltarsi,  king  of  Kish,  has  constructed,"  etc.    Barton  takes 

1  S.  Seligmann,  Dcr  hose  Blick  ttnd  Verwandtes,  ii,  196  ff. 

2  Cf.  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  490,  n.  4. 

3  On  the  yoni  as  amulet  see  Seligmann,  Dcr  b'ose  Blick  nnd  Vcrwandtcs,  ii,  203. 

4  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  ii,  491  f.,  and  the  references  there 
to  Gait's  Assam  and  other  works. 

5  III  Rawlinson,  pi.  i,  no.  I2i55,and  IV  Rawlinson.  col.  2,11.25-28.  The  androgy- 
nous sense  is  maintained  by  G.  A.  Barton,  in  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental 
Society,  xxi,  second  half,  p.  185  ff.  Other  renderings  of  the  first  inscription  are  given 
by  Thureau-Dangin  in  Revue  d'Assyriologie,  iv,  and  Radau,  Early  Babylonian  His- 
tory, p.  125. 


EARLY  CULTS  1 69 

the  two  titles  "the  divine  Ishtar"  (=  'king  of  countries,'  mascu- 
line) and  "the  lady  Ishtar"  to  refer  to  the  same  deity,  in  whose 
person  would  thus  be  united  male  and  female  beings.  If,  how- 
ever, the  king  of  countries  and  Ishtar  be  taken  to  be  two  differ- 
ent deities  (as  is  possible),  there  is  no  bisexuality.  The  second 
inscription,  which  is  bilingual,  has  the  expressions  "  the  mother- 
father  Enlil,"  "  the  mother-father  Ninlil "  (Sumerian),  rendered  in 
Semitic  "the  father-mother  Enlil,"  "the  father-mother  Ninlil." 
These  expressions  probably  signify  not  that  the  two  deities  are  bi- 
sexual, but  that  each  of  them  fulfills  the  guarding  and  nourishing 
functions  of  a  father  and  a  mother. 

The  expression  in  a  hymn  to  Ishtar  that  "  she  has  a  beard  like 
the  god  Ashur"  may  be  satisfactorily  explained  as  an  astrological 
statement,  the  meaning  of  which  is  that  the  planet  Dilbat  (Ishtar, 
Venus)  at  certain  times  equals  the  sun  (represented  by  Ashur) 
in  brilliancy,  her  rays  being  likened  to  a  beard.1  A  similar  astro- 
logical interpretation  is  offered  by  Jastrow  of  a  passage  (to  which 
attention  was  called  by  Francois  Lenormant)  in  which  a  female 
Dilbat  and  a  male  Dilbat  are  spoken  of.  Other  astrological  texts 
indicate  that  the  terms  'male'  and  ' female'  are  employed  as 
expressions  of  greater  or  less  brilliancy.2  Lajard's  view,  that  all 
Babylonian  and  Assyrian  deities  were  androgynous,  hardly  needs 
discussion  now.3 

409.  Of  a  more  definite  character  are  expressions  in  two  Phoeni- 
cian inscriptions.  In  an  inscription  of  Eshmunazzar  II  (probably 
early  in  the  fourth  century  B.C.)  the  great  goddess  of  Sidon  is  called 
"  Ashtart  Shem  Baal."  4  The  word  shem  means  *  name,'  and,  if  it 
be  so  interpreted  as  to  give  the  goddess  the  name  of  a  male  divinity, 
she  may  be  understood  to  have  partly  male  form.    But  such  change 

1  Text  in  Craig,  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Religious  Texts,  i,  pi.  vii,  obv.  6,  and 
by  Meek,  in  American  'journal  of  Semitic  Languages,  xxvi ;  translation  in  Jastrow's 
Religion  Babyloniens  und  Assynens,  i.  544  U  and  discussion  by  him  in  article  "  1  he 
«  Bearded  '  Venus  "  in  Revue  archeologique,  191 1,  i. 

2  See  for  Lenormant's  view  Gazette  archeologique,  1876  and  1S79,  and  Jastrow's 
criticism  in  the  article  cited  in  the  preceding  note. 

3  Lajard,  Recherches  sur  Ic  culte  de  Venus.  He  is  followed  by  A.  Jeremias,  The 
Old  Testament  in  the  Light  of  the  Ancient  East  (Eng.  tr.),  i,  123. 

4  Corpus  Inscriptionwn  Semitiearuiu,  i,  i.  p.  13. 


\yo     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

of  name  is  hardly  probable,  and  this  is  not  necessarily  the  natural 
force  of  the  phrase.  In  Hebrew  to  "  call  one's  name  on  a  person 
or  thing  "  is  to  assert  ownership  in  it  or  close  connection  with  it.1 
In  the  West  Semitic  area  some  personal  names  signify  simply '  name 
of  such  and  such  a  deity,'  as,  for  example,  Shemuel  (Samuel), 
'  name  of  El,'  Shemzebul,  '  name  of  (the  god)  Zebul,'  denoting 
devotion  or  subordination  to  the  deity  in  question.  "  Shem  Baal " 
as  a  title  of  Ashtart  may  then  indicate  her  close  relation  with  the 
god,  or,  perhaps,  if  the  expression  be  understood  more  broadly, 
her1  equality  with  him  in  power  (the  name  of  a  deity  involves  his 
attributes)  —  he  was  the  great  god,  but  she,  the  expression  would 
say,  is  not  less  mighty  than  he  ;  or,  less  probably,  baal  may  be  taken 
not  as  proper  name  but  as  title,  the  sense  then  being  that  the  god- 
dess is  the  lord  of  the  city.2  Another  proposal  is  to  read  "  Ashtart 
shame  Baal,"  'Ashtart  of  the  heaven  [sky]  of  Baal.'3  There  is  a 
Phoenician  Baal-shamem,  '  lord  of  the  sky,'  but  nowhere  else  is  the 
sky  described  as  the  abode  of  a  baal,  and  the  transference  of  the 
local  city-goddess  to  that  region  would  be  strange  ;  nor  in  the  ex- 
pression '  Baal-shamem'  is  Baal  a  proper  name  —  it  is  merely  a  title. 
410.  Another  phrase,  occurring  in  many  Carthaginian  inscrip- 
tions, makes  mention  of  "  Tanit  face  of  Baal,"  4  an  expression  that 
may  point  to  a  female  body  with  male  face.  Its  indefiniteness  —  it 
does  not  state  the  nature  of  the  face  (it  may  point  to  a  beard)  — 
makes  it  difficult  to  draw  from  it  any  conclusions  as  to  the  char- 
acter of  the  deity  named.5   But  the  probability  is  that  it  is  identical 

1  iSam.xii,28;  Deut.xxviii,  10.  The  angel  in  whom  is  Yahweh's  name  (Ex.  xxiii,  21) 
has  the  authority  of  the  deity. 

2  Cf.  Dillmann,  in  Monatsbericht  der  Akademie  der  Wissenschaften  (Berlin,  1SS1). 
The  feminine  form  given  to  Baal  in  Rom.  xi,  3  f.,  may  refer  to  the  disparaging  term 
'shame'  (Heb.  boshet,  for  which  the  Greek  would  be  aischune)  often  substituted  by 
the  late  editors  of  the  Old  Testament  for  Baal.  Saul's  son  Ishbaal  ('man  of  Baal') 
is  called  Ishbosheth,  Jonathan's  son  Meribbaal  is  called  Mephibosheth,  etc. 

3  Dillmann  (loc.  cit.)  combines  shame  with  Ashtart,  as  if  the  sense  were  « the 
heavenly  Ashtart  of  Baal'  — an  impossible  rendering;  but  he  also  interprets  the 
phrase  to  mean  'Ashtart  the  consort  of  the  heavenly  Baal.'  Halevy,  Melanges, 
p.  2,1  ;    Ed.  Meyer,  in   Roscher's  Lexikon,  article  "  Astarte." 

4  Corpus  Insaiptionum  Semiticarum,  i,  i,  no.  195  ;  i.  ii,  no.  1,  al.  Tanit  appears  to 
be  identical  in  character  and  cult  with  Ashtart. 

5  See  below,  §  411  f. ;  cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  p.  478. 


EARLY  CULTS  iyi 

in  sense  with  the  one  mentioned  above.  Tanit  was  the  great  god- 
dess of  Carthage  ;  she  is  called  "Adon,"  *  lord,'  and  her  equality 
with  Baal  is  indicated  by  the  statement  that  she  had  his  face,  the 
word  *face'  being  here  equivalent  to  *  personality '  and  r  power.'1 

411.  At  a  later  period  (earl)-  in  the  fifth  century  of  our  era)  two 
authors,  Servius  and  Macrobius,  make  definite  statements  concern- 
ing a  bisexual  cult,  apparently  Semitic.2  Both  statements  occur  in 
connection  with  Vergil's  use  of  the  masculine  deus  (ducente  Jed)  as 
a  title  of  Venus,  in  explanation  of  which  the  cases  of  supposed  bi- 
sexualism  are  cited.3  What  is  said  is  that  there  was  in  Cyprus  a 
deity  whose  image  was  bearded  —  a  god  of  virile  nature,  but  dressed 
as  a  woman,  and  regarded  as  being  both  male  and  female.  Further, 
Philochorus  is  quoted  to  the  effect  that  men  sacrificed  to  her  in 
women's  dress  and  women  in  men's  dress.  This  last  remark  does 
not  necessarily  point  to  an  androgynous  deity,  for  exchange  of 
dress  between  men  and  women  sometimes  occurs  where  there  is 
no  question  of  the  cult  of  such  a  deity.4  But  the  Cyprian  deity 
is  said  also  to  have  been  called  'A^poSirov  (Aphroditos  ?  or  Aphro- 
diton  ?)  5  —  apparently  a  male  Aphrodite. 

412.  Leaving  aside  a  few  other  notices  that  add  nothing  to 
our  knowledge  of  the  point  under  consideration,  we  should  natu- 
rally conclude,  if  we  give  any  credit  to  the  statements  of  Servius 
and  Macrobius,  that  there  was  a  report  in  their  time  of  a  bisexual 
deity  in  Cyprus.  As  regards  Vergil's  "  deus,"  that  may  be  merely 
a  poetical  expression  of  the  eminence  and  potency  of  the  goddess. 
But  the  assertions  of  her  bisexual  character  are  distinct,  even  if  the 
"  beard  "  be  discarded.  This  latter  may  have  come  from  a  mis- 
understanding of  some  appearance  on  the  face  of  the  statue ;  or, 

1  A  similar  interpretation  is  given  by  Baethgen  in  his  Semitische  Religionsgeschichte, 
p.  267  f.  His  "monistic"  view,  however,  that  various  deities  were  regarded  as  mani- 
festations of  the  supreme  deity  is  not  tenable. 

2  Servius,  Commentary  on  Vergil,  /En.  ii,  632  ;  Macrobius,  Saturnalia,  iii,  8,  on 
the  same  passage. 

3  There  are  manuscript  variations  in  the  text  of  Servius,  but  these  do  not  affect 
the  sense  derived  from  the  two  authors,  and  need  not  be  considered  here. 

4  Cf.  Frazer,  Adonis  Attis  Osiris,  p.  428  ff. 

5  Servius,  "they  call  her":  Macrobius,  "Aristophanes  calls  her."  But  who  this 
Aristophanes  is,  or  where  he  so  calls  her,  we  are  not  informed. 


172      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

as  has  been  suggested,  there  may  have  been  a  false  beard  attached 
to  it  permanently  or  occasionally,1  and  from  this  may  have  sprung 
the  belief  in  the  twofold  nature  of  the  deity.  We  are  not  told, 
however,  that  such  a  nature  was  ascribed  to  Aphrodite,  or  that  a 
beard  was  attached  to  her  statue ;  and,  if  this  was  done,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  suppose  that  a  popular  belief  in  the  bisexuality  of  a  deity 
could  have  arisen  from  such  a  procedure.  Some  better  ground 
for  the  statements  of  Servius  and  Macrobius  there  seems  to  have 
been,  though  we  do  not  know  their  authorities.  In  any  case  it 
ma\  be  concluded  that  the  cult  in  question,  if  it  existed,  was  late, 
popular,  and  without  marked  influence  on  the  Semitic  religious 
development.  No  figures  or  other  traces  of  a  bisexual  deity  have 
been  discovered  in  Cyprus  or  elsewhere  (unless  the  Carthaginian 
Tanit  be  an  exception),  and  all  that  is  otherwise  known  of  the 
character  and  cult  of  the  Babylonian  Ishtar,  the  Phoenician  Ash- 
tart,  and  the  Carthaginian  Tanit  (=  Ashtart)  is  against  the  sup- 
position of  bisexuality.  Ishtar,  originally  a  deity  of  fertility,  became, 
through  social  growth,  a  patron  of  war  and  statecraft ;  but  there  is 
no  indication  that  an  attempt  was  ever  made  to  combine  these  two 
characters  in  one  figure. 

413.  The  Phrygian  figure  Agdistis,  represented  in  the  myths 
as  androgynous  2  (the  myths  being  based  on  cults),  is  connected 
with  the  worship  of  the  Great  Mother,  Kybele  (the  embodiment 
of  the  female  productive  power  of  nature),  with  whom  is  associ- 
ated Attis  (the  embodiment  of  the  male  power).3  The  myths  iden- 
tify Agdistis  on  the  one  hand  with  Kybele,  on  the  other  hand  with 
Attis  —  he  represents  in  his  own  person  the  combination  of  the  two 
generative  powers.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether  this  was  his  signifi- 
cance in  the  actual  worship,  in  which  he  hardly  appears ;  he  was 

1  So  Jastrow,  in  the  article  cited  above.  Remarking  on  the  statement  of  Lydus 
(in  Dc  Mensibus,  ii,  io)  that  the  Pamphylians  formerly  worshiped  a  bearded  Venus, 
he  calls  attention  to  the  Carian  priestess  of  Athene  (Herodotus,  i,  175  ;  viii,  104),  who, 
when  misfortune  was  impending,  had  (or  grew)  a  great  beard  —  a  mark  of  power,  but 
presumably  not  a  genuine  growth.    Exactly  what  this  story  means  it  is  hard  to  say. 

2  Pausanias,  vii,  17  ;  Arnobius,  v,  5. 

3  Roscher,  Lexicon,  articles  "Agdistis,"  "Attis";  Frazer,  Adonis  At/is  Osiris, 
p.  219  f. ;  H.  Hepding,  Attis;  cf.  Pseudo-Lucian,  Dc  Syria  Dca,  15  (Attis  assumes 
female  form  and  dress). 


EARLY  CULTS  173 

probably  a  divine  figure  of  the  same  character  as  Kybele  and  Attis, 
worked  up  by  myth-makers  and  woven  into  the  larger  myth.  His 
self-castration  reflects  the  practice  of  the  priests  and  other  wor- 
shipers of  Kybele.1   Thus  cultually  he  is  of  little  or  no  importance. 

414.  There  is  no  evidence  that  this  Phrygian  figure  was  derived 
from  Semitic-  sources.  A  certain  similarity  between  Phrygian  and 
Syrian  cults  of  gods  and  goddesses  of  fertility  is  obvious,  and  the 
social  relations  between  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Cyprus  make 
borrowing  in  either  direction  conceivable.  But  cults  of  such  deities 
might  grow  up  independently  in  different  regions,2  and  the  suppo- 
sition that  the  Phrygian  worship  was  native  to  Asia  Minor  is  favored 
by  the  great  elaboration  of  its  ceremonies  and  by  their  barbarous 
character.  This  character  suggests  that  the  worship  may  have  origi- 
nated with  savage  peoples  who  preceded  the  Aryans  in  the  country.3 

415.  The  most  definite  androgynous  figure  is  the  Greek  Hermaph- 
roditos.  It  was  only  in  Greece  that  such  a  compound  name  arose, 
and  that  the  composite  form  became  established  in  art.  It  is  not 
certain  when  the  Greek  form  was  fixed.  If  the  statement  that  Aris- 
tophanes used  the  term  "Aphroditos  "4  (or  "Aphroditon  ")  is  to  be 
relied  on,  it  must  be  concluded  that  the  conception  existed  in  Greece 
prior  to  the  fifth  century,  probably  in  that  case  as  a  popular  usage 
that  was  unorganized  and  unimportant,  since  it  is  not  referred  to  in 
the  existing  literature.  But  of  this  Aristophanes  we  know  nothing, 
and  the  vague  statements  of  Servius  and  Macrobius  may  be  neg- 
lected as  being  without  significance  for  the  figure  in  question. 

416.  The  name  Hermaphroditos  is  said  to  occur  for  the  first 
time  in  the  fourth  or  third  century  B.C.5  This  would  indicate  a 
gradual  formulation  of  the  idea,  the  result  being  the  combination 
of  two  divine  forms  into  a  single  form.  Aphrodite  would  naturally 
be   chosen   for   the   female   side,   and   the   ithyphallic   Hermes   is 

1  This  practice  seems  to  be  an  exaggerated  form  of  the  savage  custom  of  self- 
wounding  in  honor  of  the  dead  (to  obtain  their  favor),  interpreted  in  developed 
cults  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  deity  or  as  a  means  of  union  with  him. 

2  On  the  wide  diffusion  of  cults  of  mother-goddesses  see  below.  §§  72.),  734,  762,  etc. 

3  Cf.  Pseudo-Lucian,  Dc  Syria  Dca,  15;  Ed.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  A  Italians, 
2d  ed.,  i,  649,  651  ;  Lagrange,  Etudes  sur  Us  religions  semitiques,  2d  ed.,  p.  241  ;  Hep- 
ding,  Attis,  p.  162.  4  See  above,  §  411. 

5  In  Theophrastus,  Characters,  article  16  (Roscher,  Lexikon,  s.v.  Hermaphroditos). 


174     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

appropriate  for  the  male  side  —  possibly  the  Hermes  pillar  with 
Aphrodite  bust  was  the  earliest  form.1  The  representations  of 
Hermaphroditos  show  a  male  body  with  female  bust;  the  name 
Aphroditos  would  rather  suggest  a  female  body  with  male  additions. 
Other  Greek  bisexual  figures  are  forms  of  Priapos  and  Eros. 

An  historical  connection  between  the  Greek  and  the  Phrygian 
forms  is  possible,  but  is  not  proved.  In  India  the  bisexual  form 
of  Qiva,  which  seems  to  be  late,2  connects  itself  with  the  licentious 
character  of  his  rites.    Its  historical  origin  is  uncertain. 

417.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  cult  of  the  Greek  androgynous 
deities  entered  seriously  into  the  religious  life  of  the  people.  In  late 
philosophic  circles  they  were  treated  merely  as  symbols  of  the  cre- 
ative power  of  nature,  and  thus  lost  their  character  as  persons. 

418.  The  starting-point  for  the  development  of  the  hermaphro- 
dite figure  may  perhaps  be  found  in  two  facts,  the  interchange  or 
change  of  sexual  characters  3  and  the  combination  of  two  deities  to 
express  a  broader  idea  than  either  of  them  represents.  The  as- 
sumption of  female  dress  and  sexual  habits  by  males,  and  of  male 
dress  and  habits  by  females,  has  prevailed  over  a  great  part  of  the 
world.4  The  embodiment  of  this  fact  in  a  composite  divine  form 
would  be  not  unnatural  at  a  time  when  there  was  a  disposition  to 
give  expression,  in  the  person  of  gods,  to  all  human  experiences. 
Such  definite  embodiment  is,  however,  rare  in  religious  history,  prob- 
ably, as  is  suggested  above,  because  it  involves  a  large  generaliza- 
tion and  a  more  or  less  distinct  symbolism.  The  first  movement 
in  this  direction  may  have  been  naively  sensuous ;  later,  as  is  re- 
marked above,  the  symbolic  conception  became  predominant. 

419.  The  association  of  certain  animals  with  certain  phallic  dei- 
ties (as  the  bull  with  Dionysos,  the  goat  with  Pan,  the  ass  with 
Priapos)  is  a  part  of  the  general  connection  between  gods  and  an- 
imals, the  grounds  of  which  are  in  many  cases  obscure.5  Pan's  rural 
character  may  explain  his  relation  to  the  goat ;  the  bull,  the  ass,  and 


1  Roscher,  article  cited.  2  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  pp.  447,  49: 

3  H.  Ellis,  Psychology  of  Sex,  i,  passim. 

4  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  chap,  xliii. 
5Cf.  §25  iff. 


EARLY  CULTS  1 75 

many  other  animals  regarded  as  sacred,  may  have  been  brought 
into  ritual  connection  with  gods  by  processes  of  subordination  of 
divine  beasts  and  through  collocation  of  cults.  There  is  no  evidence 
to  show  that  the  animals  connected  with  phallic  gods  were  selected 
on  account  of  their  salacious  dispositions  or  their  sexual  power. 

420.  Phallicistic  cults,  attenuated  by  advance  of  refinement,  sur- 
vived long,  even  into  Christian  times,  under  modified  forms.1  In 
such  cases  they  become  merely  devices  of  ignorant  piety.  When 
the  aid  of  a  Christian  saint  is  sought  in  order  to  secure  fertility,  the 
trust  in  the  phallus-symbol  involves  no  unworthy  desire  ;  and  what 
is  true  of  medieval  European  peoples  may  have  been  true  of  ancient 
peoples.  In  the  ancient  world  these  cults  took  many  forms,  rang- 
ing from  naive  faith  to  frank  obscenity  on  the  one  hand  and  phil- 
osophic breadth  on  the  other  hand.  They  take  their  place  as  part 
of  the  general  worship  of  the  forces  of  nature,  and  follow  all  the 
variations  of  human  culture. 

1  Dulaure,  Dcs  divinites  generatrices.    Cf.  Hartland,  Primitive  Paternity,  chap.  ii. 


CHAPTER  V 

TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO 

421.  Totemism  and  taboo  are  both  of  them  intimately  connected 
with  the  history  of  early  religion,  but  in  different  ways.  Totemism 
is  not  essentially  religious  if  religion  be  held  to  involve  worship  of 
superhuman  or  extrahuman  beings  ;  it  has,  however,  in  many  cases 
coalesced  with  religious  practices  and  ideas,  and  it  is  sometimes 
difficult  to  draw  the  line  distinctly  between  it  and  religion  proper. 
Taboo,  on  the  other  hand,  is  founded  on  magical  conceptions,  and 
these  are  nearly  allied  to  the  basis  of  early  religion  ;  it  is  more  or 
less  prominent  in  all  early  cults,  and  has  survived  in  the  higher  re- 
ligious systems,  though  in  these  it  is  generally  spiritualized.  The 
two  lines  of  development,  totemism  and  taboo,  appear  side  by  side 
in  early  cults,  and  influence  each  the  other;  but  their  functions 
in  the  social  organization  of  religion  have  been  different,  and  they 
are  best  treated  separately.  As  the  collections  of  material  for  their 
history  are  still  incomplete,  accounts  of  them  must  be  regarded  as, 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  provisional.    . 

Totemism 

422.  The  natural  attraction  of  human  beings  for  one  another 
and  the  necessity  of  providing  effective  means  of  defense  against 
enemies  have  led  men  to  associate  themselves  together  in  clans 
and  tribes.  In  such  associations  some  form  of  organization  arose 
as  a  matter  of  course ;  experience  early  showed  that  men  could  not 
live  together  except  under  the  guidance  and  control  of  authoritative 
regulations.  Such  regulations  dealt  with  fundamental  facts  of  life, 
which  in  the  beginnings  of  society  are  mostly  physical.  The  points 
requiring  regulation  are :  the  relation  of  man  to  nonhuman  things 

176 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  177 

(animals,  plants,  and  inanimate  objects)  ;  the  maintenance  of  rights 
of  life  and  property;  and  the  sexual  relations  between  human  be- 
ings, especially  marriage  as  the  basis  of  the  family.  The  determina- 
tion of  what  things  may  be  eaten  belongs  more  particularly  under 
"  taboo,"  and  is  considered  below.  Customs  and  rules  designed 
to  protect  life  and  property  have  always  coalesced  with  religious 
systems  ;  they  are  mentioned  in  connection  with  the  ethical  element 
in  religion.1  The  other  points  —  relations  to  nonhuman  things  and 
sexual  relations  —  may  be  conveniently  considered  together  here  ; 
but,  as  the  second  point  belongs  rather  to  sociology  than  to  the 
history  of  religion,  it  will  be  sufficient,  with  an  introductory  word 
on  marriage  restrictions  (under  Exogamy),  to  give  the  facts  in 
connection  with  the  various  totemic  organizations. 

423.  Exogamy}  All  over  the  savage  world  the  general  rule 
prevails  (though  not  without  exceptions)  that  a  man  must  not 
marry  a  woman  of  his  own  clan ;  though  the  family  proper  (hus- 
band, wife,  and  children)  exists,  the  clan  is  the  fundamental  social 
unit.  When  a  tribe  contains  several  clans  it  is  commonly  divided 
into  groups  (phratries),  each  phratry  including  certain  clans,  and 
the  rule  then  is  that  a  man  shall  not  marry  a  woman  of  his  phratry. 
Usually  the  number  of  phratries  is  two,  but  in  some  cases  (as  among 
the  Australian  Arunta  and  adjoining  tribes)  these  are  divided  so  that 
there  are  four  or  eight  exogamous  groups  (subphratries).  When 
the  totem  is  hereditary  the  totemic  clans  are  exogamous  ;  otherwise 
(as  among  the  Arunta)  marriage  between  persons  of  the  same  clan 
is  permitted. 

424.  Whether  the  clan  or  the  phratry  preceded  in  time  it  is  hardly 
possible  to  determine  —  clans  may  have  united  to  form  a  larger 
group,  or  an  original  group  may  have  been  divided  into  clans.  But 
in  the  latter  case  this  original  group  was  practically  a  clan,  so 
that  the  question  of  precedence  in  time  is  not  important.  Where 
clan  exogamy  exists  without  phratries  it  is  possible  that  these  also 


1  See  below,  Chap.  XI. 

2  J.  F.  McLennan,  Studies  in  .\uciait  History;  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy  \ 
A.  Lang,  Social  Origins  ;  A.  E.  Crawley,  in  Anthropological  Essays  presented  to  E.  B. 

Tylor  ;  N.  W.  Thomas,  ibid. 


i;8     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

formerly  existed  and  have  been  dropped  in  the  interests  of  free- 
dom —  that  is,  they  limited  the  choice  of  a  wife  to  an  extent  that 
proved  inconvenient.1 

425.  An  almost  universal  feature  of  the  marriage  rules  of  low 
tribes  is  the  classificatory  system  of  relationship.  According  to  this 
system,  the  community  being  divided  into  groups,  terms  of  rela- 
tionship indicate  not  kinship  in  blood  but  tribal  status  in  respect 
of  marriageability ;  thus,  the  same  term  is  used  for  a  child's  real 
father  and  for  every  man  who  might  legally  have  become  the 
husband  of  his  mother,  and  the  same  term  for  the  real  mother 
and  for  every  woman  whom  the  father  might  have  married ; 
the  children  of  such  possible  fathers  and  mothers  are  the  child's 
brothers  and  sisters ;  all  possible  spouses  are  called  a  man's 
"wives"  or  a  woman's  "husbands";  and  similarly  with  all  rela- 
tionships.2 

426.  The  system  has  many  varieties  of  form,  and  gives  way  in 
time  to  the  formal  recognition  of  blood  kinship.  It  has  been  held 
to  point  to  an  earlier  system  of  "  group  marriage,"  in  which  all 
the  men  of  one  group  had  marital  relations  with  all  the  women  of 
another  group,  and  further  to  a  primitive  custom  of  sexual  promis- 
cuity.3 In  the  nature  of  the  case  these  hypotheses  do  not  admit  of 
proof  or  disproof.  All  that  is  certain  is  that  the  classificatory  system 
has  been  and  is  an  accompaniment  of  one  stage  of  social  and  religious 
development. 

427.  The  effect  of  exogamous  arrangements  has  been  to  pre- 
vent marriage  between  persons  related  in  blood. 4  In  totemic 
organizations,  when  the  totem  is  inherited,  a  division  into  two 
exogamous  groups  makes  marriage  of  brother  to  sister  impossible, 
since  all  the  children  of  one  mother  are  in  the  same  group  ;  and 


1  Frazer  (Totemism  and  Exogamy,  iv,  135),  thinks  it  possible  that  exogamy  of 
totemic  clans  is  always  exogamy  in  decay. 

2  L.  H.  Morgan  (the  discoverer  of  the  system),  Ancient  Society  ;  W.  H.  R.  Rivers 
in  Anthropological  Essays  presented  to  E.  B.  Tylor. 

3  For  the  supposition  of  promiscuity  are  Morgan  (op.  cit.,  p.  54),  Spencer  and 
Gillen  (Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  100  ff.),  and  others;  against  are 
Westermarck  (Human  Marriage,  chap,  iv),  Crawley  (The  Mystic  Rose,  p.  479  ff.), 
and  others.  4  Cf.  Morgan,  op.  cit.,  p.  27,  and  part  ii,  chap.  i. 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  179 

if  there  are  four  such  groups  and  children  are  assigned  to  a  group 
different  from  that  of  the  father  and  that  of  the  mother,  marriage 
between  parent  and  child  is  impossible.  When  the  totem  is  not  in- 
herited (as  is  the  case  among  the  Australian  Arunta)  similar  results 
are  secured  by  a  further  subdivision. 

428.  The  particular  exogamic  customs  vary  considerably  among 
early  tribes,  the  differences  following,  in  general,  differences  of 
social  organization.  In  some  more  settled  savage  communities  (as, 
for  example,  the  Kurnai  of  Southeast  Australia),  in  which  there  are 
neither  classes  nor  totemic  clans,  marriage  is  permitted  only  between 
members  of  certain  districts.1  Well-organized  social  life  tends  to 
promote  individual  freedom  in  marriage  as  in  other  things.  Mar- 
riage with  a  half-sister  was  allowed  by  the  old  Hebrew  law,2  and 
Egyptian  kings  often  married  their  sisters. 

429.  Theories- of  the  origin  of  exogamy.  Exogamy  has  been  re- 
ferred to  a  supposed  scarcity  of  women,  which  forced  the  young 
men  to  seek  wives  abroad.3  On  the  assumption  of  early  sexual 
promiscuity  it  has  been  regarded  as  a  deliberate  attempt  to  prevent 
the  marriage  of  blood  relations.4  It  has  been  supposed  to  result 
from  the  absence  of  sexual  attraction  between  persons  who  have 
been  brought  up  together.5  An  original  human  horde  being  assumed, 
it  has  been  suggested  that  the  patriarch,  who  had  possession  of  all 
the  women  of  the  horde,  would,  from  jealousy,  drive  the  young 
men  off  to  seek  wives  elsewhere.6  From  the  point  of  view  of  the 
totem  as  divine  ancestor,  exogamy  has  been  supposed  to  arise  from 
religious  respect  for  the  clan  blood,  which  is  held  to  share  the  divin- 
ity of  the  totem,  and  would  be  polluted  (with  danger  to  the  clan) 
by  outside  marriages.7 

1  Howitt,  Native  Tribes  of  South-East  Australia,  p.  269  ff. 

2  Gen.  xx,  12  ;  the  rule  was  later  abrogated  (Ezek.  xxii,  1 1  ;  Lev.  xviii,  9). 

3  J.  F.  McLennan,  Studies  in  Ancient  History,  first  series,  p.  90  ff. ;  second  series, 

chap.  vii. 

4  L.  H.  Morgan,  Ancient  Society,   p.  424  ff. ;    Frazer,  Totemism   and  Exogamy, 

i,  164  ff. 

5  Westermarck,  Hitman  Marriage,  chaps,  xiv-xvi ;  Crawley,  The  Mystic  Rose, 
p.  222.    Cf.  Darwin,  Variation  of  Animals  and  Plants  under  Domestication,  ii,  103  f. 

6  J.  J.  Atkinson,  Primal  Law  (in  volume  with  Lang's  Social  Origins,  p.  210  ff.). 
1  E.  Durkheim,  in  Annie  sociologiquc,  \,  1-70. 


ISO     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

430.  Objections  may  be  raised  to  all  these  theories.  It  is  doubt- 
ful whether  a  scarcity  of  women  existed  in  early  times ;  and  sup- 
posing that  there  were  not  women  enough  in  a  clan  for  the  men 
of  the  clan,  this  would  not  stand  in  the  way  of  men's  taking  as 
wives  their  clan  women.1  The  assumption  of  primitive  sexual 
promiscuity,  likewise,  cannot  be  said  to  be  distinctly  borne  out 
by  known  facts.'2  Morgan's  theory,  however,  is  not  dependent  on 
this  assumption  —  it  need  only  suppose  repugnance  to  the  marriage 
of  blood  relations.  Such  repugnance  granted,  the  main  objection 
to  the  theory  rests  on  the  difficulty  of  supposing  savages  capable 
of  originating  so  thoughtful  and  elastic  a  scheme  as  the  exogamous 
system.  This  is  a  point  on  which  it  is  not  possible  to  speak  posi- 
tively. The  lowest  tribes  have  produced  languages  of  wonderfully 
intricate  and  delicate  construction,  and,  supposing  the  process  of 
constructing  marriage  regulations  to  have  gone  on  during  a  very 
long  period,  modifications  introduced  from  time  to  time,  to  meet 
conditions  felt  to  be  important,  might  conceivably  result  in  such 
exogamous  systems  as  are  now  found. 

431.  As  to  absence  of  sexual  attraction  between  persons  brought 
up  together,3  this  seems  to  be  a  result  rather  than  a  cause  of  the  pro- 
hibition of  sexual  relations  between  certain  classes  of  persons.  The 
argument  from  habits  of  the  lower  animals  is  indefinite  —  no  gen- 
eral habit  has  been  proven.  In  orgies  in  India  and  elsewhere  no  re- 
pulsion appears  between  persons  of  the  same  family.  In  the  ancient 
world  marriage  between  such  persons  was  legal  and  not  uncommon. 

432.  The  human  horde,  with  its  jealous  patriarch,  appears  to  be 
a  creation  of  the  scientific  imagination.  It,  again,  was  derived  by 
its  author  from  the  procedure  of  certain  beast-herds  in  which  the 
strongest  male  drives  away  his  rivals.  It  is  supposed,  however, 
that  in  the  human  horde  the  young  men,  having  found  wives,  are 
allowed  to  come  back  bringing  their  wives  with  them,  and  these 
last  the  patriarch  is  supposed  not  to  appropriate.  The  theory  is 
supported  by  no  facts  of  actual  usage. 

1  Frazer,  Totcmism  and  Exogamy,  iv,  75  ff.  2  See  references  in  §  426. 

3  H.  Ellis,  Psychology  of  Sex,  i,  36  f. ;  Crawley,  in  Anthropological  Essays  presented 
to  E.  B.  Tylor. 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  181 

433.  The  supposition  that  the  young  men  of  a  clan  or  tribe  go 
off  to  seek  food,  and  thus  found  a  new  clan,  has  more  in  its  favor. 
Being  compelled  to  seek  wives  in  their  new  surroundings,  they  might 
thus  initiate  a  habit  of  outside  marriage  that  would  in  time  become 
general  usage  and  therefore  sacred.  Secession  from  tribes  does  oc- 
cur, and  may  have  been  frequent  in  prehistoric  times,  but  concerning 
these  times  we  have  little  or  no  information.  It  may  be  said  that 
movements  of  this  sort  would  furnish  a  more  probable  starting-point 
for  savage  customs  than  the  ideas  and  schemes  mentioned  above. 

434.  Proof  is  lacking  also  for  Durkheim's  theory.  It  is  not 
probable  that  the  totem  was  regarded  as  divine  in  the  period  in 
which  exogamy  arose  —  by  the  tribes  whose  ideas  on  this  point  are 
known  the  totem  is  looked  on  as  a  friend  and  an  equal  but  not  as 
a  god.  And,  as  is  pointed  out  above,  there  is  no  such  general  reli- 
gious respect  for  the  clan  blood  as  would  forbid  sexual  intercourse 
between  persons  of  the  same  clan.  The  demand  for  revenge  for 
the  murder  of  a  clansman  arises  from  the  sense  of  clan  solidarity 
and  the  necessity  of  self-defense  — ■  it  is  only  in  this  regard  that  the 
blood  of  the  clan  is  regarded  as  sacred. 

435.  Horror  of  marriage  or  of  sexual  intercourse  in  general, 
within  the  prohibited  degrees  or  areas,  is  universal  in  low  com- 
munities ;  violation  of  the  tribal  law  on  this  point  is  severely  pun- 
ished, sometimes  with  death.  Whence  this  feeling  sprang  is  not 
clear.1  It  cannot  have  arisen  from  respect  for  the  purity  of  women 
or  from  a  belief  in  the  sanctity  of  the  family  —  intercourse  with  girls 
before  their  marriage  is  freely  allowed,  and  lending  or  exchange 
of  wives  is  common.  Magical  dangers  are  supposed  to  follow  on 
infringement  of  marriage  rules,  but,  as  such  results  come  from 
violation  of  any  tribal  custom,  this  throws  no  light  on  the  origin 
of  the  feeling  of  horror  in  question.  Absence  of  sexual  attraction 
between  persons  brought  up  together,2  though  the  absence  of  such 
feeling  is  said  to  have  been  observed  in  some  of  the  lower  animals, 
is  not  assured  for  savages ;  its  existence  in  civilized  communities 

1  See  above,  §431. 

2  See  above,  §  429,  and  compare  Howard,  History  of  Matrimonial  Institutions, 
i,  121  ff. 


182     1XTR0DUCTI0X   TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

is  due  to  the  acceptance  of  the  established  usage,  which  makes 
certain  unions  impossible,  so  that  they  are  not  considered,  and 
the  germ  of  such  a  public  opinion  may  perhaps  be  assumed  for 
early  tribes.  Probably  the  horror  of  incest  is  a  derivation  from 
economic  and  other  situations  and  laws  that  arose  naturally  in 
early  society  —  it  is  a  habit  hardened  into  an  instinct. 

436.  Though  exogamy  differs  from  totemism  in  origin  and  func- 
tion, the  two  are  often  found  associated  —  their  conjunction  may 
be  said  to  be  the  general  rule.  There  are,  however,  exceptions.1 
Totemic  clans  are  not  exogamous  in  Central  Australia,  the  Melane- 
sian  Banks  Islands,  among  the  Nandi  of  East  Africa,  and  the 
Bakuana  of  South  Africa.  On  the  other  hand,  exogamy  is  found 
without  totemism  in  the  tribes  just  mentioned,  among  the  Todas  of 
Southern  India,  in  Sumatra,  among  the  African  Masai  and  Ashanti, 
and  in  Southern  Nigeria,  and  local  exogamy  among  tribes  (for 
example,  the  Kurnai  of  Southeast  Australia,  and  the  Californian 
Maidu  and  Shasta)  in  which  totemic  divisions  are  not  perceptible. 

437.  In  all  such  cases,  however,  the  absence  of  records  makes 
the  history  of  the  organizations  uncertain  —  we  do  not  know  whether 
or  not  one  of  the  elements,  totemism  or  exogamy,  formerly  existed 
and  has  yielded  to  disintegrating  influences.  Thus  local  exogamy 
may  have  superseded  clan  exogamy  in  many  places,  the  former 
representing  the  more  settled  habit  of  life,  and  the  absence  of  the 
totemic  constitution  may  indicate  a  process  of  decay  of  totemism. 
No  general  rule  for  the  decision  of  the  question  can  be  laid  down  — 
every  case  must  be  judged  for  itself.2 

438.  Since  a  custom  of  exogamy  presupposes  at  least  two  social 
groups  (clans),  and  totemism  appears  to  be  connected  originally  with 
single  clans,  the  natural  inference  is  that  the  latter  has  everywhere 
preceded  the  former  in  time.  Both  have  undergone  great  changes 
produced  by  similar  sets  of  circumstances,  and  in  both  cases  the 
simplest  form  is  probably  the  oldest,  though  here  again  definite 
data  are  lacking.  However,  comparison  of  the  known  exogamous 
systems  points  to  a  two-group  arrangement  as  that  from  which 
the  existing  forms  have  come. 

1  Details  are  given  in  Frazer's  Totemism  and  Exogamy.        '2  Cf .  below,  §  442. 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  183 

439.  Exogamy  served  a  good  purpose  in  early  stages  of  society, 
both  by  preventing  marriages  between  blood  relations  and  by  in- 
ducing a  sense  of  the  sacredness  of  the  marriage  bond.  Its  long 
persistence  shows  that  it  was  regarded  by  most  tribes  as  necessary 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  tribal  life.  Its  restriction  of  individual 
freedom  in  the  choice  of  wives  was  an  evil,  and  was  in  time  modi- 
fied and  finally  thrown  off;  but  it  seems  to  have  been  the  only 
means,  discoverable  by  early  society,  by  which  clans  and  tribes 
could  live  peaceably  side  by  side,  and  it  paved  the  way  for  the 
establishment  of  the  family  proper. 

440.  This  brief  account  of  the  most  important  adjunct  of 
totemism  may  serve  to  clear  the  way  for  the  consideration  of 
the  totemic  system. 

441.  Among  the  various  relations  that  undeveloped  communities 
sustain  to  nonhuman  things  totemism  has  the  peculiarity  that  it  is 
an  alliance  between  a  human  group  (clan  or  tribe)  and  a  species 
of  animals  or  plants,  or  an  inanimate  natural  object  (as  sun  or 
moon),  or,  rarely,  an  artificial  object  (usually  an  implement  of 
labor).1  The  nonhuman  thing  is  regarded  as  a  friend,  and  is  re- 
spected and  cared  for  accordingly.  When  it  is  a  species  (animal 
or  plant)  every  individual  of  the  species  is  held  to  bear  this  friendly 
relation  to  every  individual  of  the  allied  human  group.  Generally 
there  is  believed  to  be  not  only  similarity  or  identity  of  nature 
between  the  two  (such  identity  of  nature  between  man  and  non- 
human  things  is  everywhere  an  article  of  the  creed  of  savages) 
but  a  special  intimacy,  commonly  a  kinship  of  blood.  While  the 
men  of  a  group  respect  their  ally,  it,  on  its  part,  is  supposed  to 
refrain  from  injuring  them,  and  even  in  some  cases  to  aid  them. 
It  is  credited  with  great  power,  such  as  in  savage  life  all  nonhuman 
things  are  supposed  to  possess.  The  members  of  the  human  group 
regard  one  another  as  brothers  ;  this  feeling,  however,  can  hardly 
be  said  to  be  peculiar  to  totemic  organizations  —  it  exists,  more  or 
less,  in  all  early  associations,  particularly  in  any  one  association  as 
against  others. 

1  On  two  supposed  human  totems,  Laughing  Boys  and  Nursing  Mothers,  see 
Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  i,  160,  253  ;  ii,  520  f. 


1 84     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

442.  While,  therefore,  we  may  take  a  certain  clan  alliance  as  a 
fundamental  fact  of  totemism,  we  find  in  various  communities  other 
features  of  organization  more  or  less  closely  combined  with  this 
into  a  social  unity.  In  every  such  case  it  is  necessary  to  inquire 
whether  the  feature  in  question  is  a  universal  or  general  accom- 
paniment of  clan  alliance,  and  whether  it  is  peculiar  to  the  latter 
or  is  found  in  other  systems  also. 

443.  (a)  Exogamy.  It  is  pointed  out  above1  that  totemism  and 
exogamy  are  mutually  independent  arrangements,  differing  in  func- 
tion and  origin,  each  being  found  without  the  other.  Yet  in  many 
cases,  perhaps  in  the  majority  of  cases,  the  two  are  found  combined. 
Exogamy  supposes  a  body  of  clans,  and,  given  a  group  of  totemic 
clans,  it  would  naturally  be  attached  to  these,  and  so  become  an 
organic  part  of  their  social  constitution.  Where  there  is  no  totem- 
ism the  question  of  union,  of  course,  does  not  come  up.  Where 
totemism  is  not  accompanied  by  exogamy  it  is  sometimes  probable 
that  the  union  of  the  two  once  existed,2  or  that  exogamy  is  excluded 
by  the  peculiar  form  of  the  totemism.3  Exogamy  may  thus  be  re- 
garded as  a  natural  and  frequent  accompaniment  of  totemism,  but 
it  is  not  a  universal  and  necessary  element  of  the  totemic  constitution. 

444.  (b)  Names.  As  a  general  rule  the  totemic  clan  bears  the 
name  of  its  totem.  The  exceptions  appear  to  be  found  in  some- 
what advanced  communities,  as  the  Fijians  and  the  Kwakiutl  (but 
not  the  northern  branch  of  this  tribe).4  There  are  also  many  larger 
exogamous  groups  (as,  for  example,  in  Australia)  the  meaning  of 
whose  names  is  obscure  —  they  may  or  may  not  contain  the  name 
of  the  totem ;  but  such  groups  may  have  a  different  origin  from 
that  of  the  totemic  clans. 

445.  In  some  cases  clans  and  tribes  have  distinctive  crests  or 
badges,  generally  totemic  figures  or  parts  of  such  figures.  These 
are  carved  on  beams  of  houses  and  on  house  poles,  or  cut  or  drawn 
on  men's  persons,  and  are  used  as  signs  manual,  serving  thus  to 
indicate  to  strangers  a  man's  clan  connections.    Such  emblems  are 

1  §  436.         2  So,  apparently,  among  the  Nandi  (Hollis,  The  Nandi,  pp.  6,  61). 

3  As  among  the  Australian  Arunta  (Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central 
Australia,  pp.  116,  125  ff.). 

4  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  ii,  136  ;  hi,  321  ;  Boas,  The  Kwakiutl,  p.  32S  ff. 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  185 

employed  in  the  Torres  Straits  islands  and  British  New  Guinea,1 
in  the  Aru  Islands  (southwest  of  New  Guinea),  and  in  North 
America  among  the  Lenape  (Delawares),  the  Pueblo  tribes,  the 
Tlingit,  the  Haidas,  and  the   KLwakiutl.2 

446.  In  America  the  crest  is  not  always  identical  in  name  with 
the  totem,  and  sometimes  coalesces  with  the  guardian  animal-spirit. 
The  myths  that  give  the  origin  of  the  crest  usually  describe  some 
adventure  (marriage  or  other)  of  a  man  with  the  crest  animal,  in- 
volving sometimes,  but  not  always,  the  origin  of  the  clan.3  The 
relation  between  totem  and  crest  thus  differs  in  different  places, 
and  its  origin  is  not  clear.  The  simplest  form  of  this  relation 
(that  found  in  the  New  Guinea  region)  may  indicate  that  the 
totem  animal,  being  most  intimately  connected  with  the  clan,  is 
chosen  on  that  account  as  its  badge.  Or  possibly  totem  and 
crest  have  arisen,  independently  of  each  other,  from  some  early 
affiliation  with  animals,  and  therefore  do  not  always  coincide. 
Such  a  mode  of  origination  would  help  to  explain  the  fact  that  in 
Northwestern  America  a  clan  may  have  several  crests,  and  a  man 
also  may  acquire  more  than  one.  The  relation  of  crest  to  clan  is 
looser  than  that  of  totem  to  clan  —  the  same  crest  or  crests  are 
found  in  different  clans.  When  the  totemic  constitution  of  the 
tribe  or  clan  is  weakened,  the  crest  may  become  more  important 
than  the  totem,  as  is  the  case  among  the  Haidas.  But  the  adop- 
tion of  the  crest  name  does  not  invalidate  the  general  rule  that 
the  clan  bears  the  name  of  its  totem. 

447.  Names  of  families  and  of  persons  do  not  come  into  con- 
sideration here.  They  arise  from  various  local  and  personal  peculi- 
arities that,  as  a  rule,  have  nothing  to  do  with  totemism,  and  they 
become  more  prominent  and  important  as  the  latter  declines. 

448.  The  origin  of  clan  totemic  names  is  closely  connected  with 
the  origin  of  the  totemic  organization,  and  will  be  more  conven- 
iently considered  in  connection  with  this  point.4 

1  Haddon  and  Rivers,  Expedition  to  Torres  Straits,  v,  158  ff . ;  Seligmann,  The 
Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  pp.  51,  320. 

2  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  ii,  200  ;  iii,  40,  227,  267,  281,  322. 

3  Swanton,  Tlingit  Myths  {Bulletin  jg,  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology). 

4  See  below,  §  544  ff.  • 


1 86     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

449.  (c)  Descent  from  the  totem.  Details  so  far  reported  as  to 
this  belief  are  regrettably  few  and  often  indefinite,  and  it  is  not 
possible  to  give  more  than  a  provisional  sketch  of  it.1  In  Central 
Australia  it  is  held  that  all  the  members  of  a  clan  come  into  being 
as  spirit  children,  who  are  the  creation  of  mythical  half-human,  half- 
animal  beings  of  the  olden  time ;  the  clan  bears  the  name  of  the 
mythical  ancestor  (its  totem),  and  its  members  regard  themselves 
as  identical  in  blood  and  nature  with  the  totem.2  Similar  beliefs 
arc  reported  as  existing  in  New  South  Wales  and  West  Australia, 
and  a  definite  conception  of  descent  from  the  totem  has  been  found 
in  the  Santa  Cruz  group  in  Southern  Melanesia,  in  Fiji  in  East- 
ern Melanesia,  and  apparently  in  Tonga  and  Tikopia.3  In  North 
America  the  belief  is  reported  as  existing  among  the  Lenape'  (Dela- 
wares)  and  other  Eastern  tribes.4  In  South  America  it  appears 
among  the  Arawaks  of  Guiana,5  and  perhaps  elsewhere.  For  Africa 
there  is  little  information  on  this  point,  and  what  we  have  is  not 
always  definite ; 6  one  of  the  clearest  expressions  of  descent  is 
found  in  the  title  "  grandfather  "  given  to  the  chameleon  by  the 
Chameleon  clan  of  the  Herrero  of  German  Southwest  Africa,  but 
a  comparison  with  the  similar  title  given  by  the  Zulus  to  a  sort  of 
divine  ancestor,  and  with  the  Herrero  mythical  stories  of  the  origins 
of  certain  clans,  suggests  that  the  conception  is  vague. 

450.  In  addition  to  the  more  direct  statements  there  are  tradi- 
tions or  myths  that  connect  the  origin  of  clans  with  animals  or 
plants  through  the  intermediation  of  gods  or  human  beings,  by 
marriage,  or  some  other  relation.  The  Bushbuck  clan  of  the  East 
African  Baganda  worship  a  lion-god,  who  is  called  an  ancestor  and 
is  said  to  have  turned  into  a  lion  at  his  death.  Fluctuating  opinions 
(some  persons  holding  to  direct  descent  from  a  nonhuman  ob- 
ject, others  to  friendly  relations  between  it  and  the  ancestor)  are 

1  For  the  details  of  totemic  customs  reference  may  be  made,  once  for  all,  to 
Frazers  encyclopedic   Totemism  ami  Exogamy. 

2  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  pp.  415,  423,  etc. 

3  Rivers,  Journal  of 'the  Royal  Anthropological  Institute,  xxxix  :  Man,  viii. 

4  Brinton,  The  LenUpe,  p.  39.         5  E.  F.  im  Thurn,  Indians  of  Guiana,  p.  184. 

0  For  the  Mandingos  of  Senegambia  see  Revue  d' ethnographic,  v,  81,  cited  in 
Frazer's  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  ii,  544. 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  187 

reported  in  Sumatra,  Borneo,  and  the  Moluccas.  The  Hurons  re- 
garded the  rattlesnake  as  a  kinsman  of  their  ancestor.  The  origin 
of  the  clan  or  family  is  referred  to  marriage  with  an  animal  by  the 
Borneo  1  )yaks  and  various  tribes  on  the  African  Gold  Coast,  and 
to  marriage  with  a  plant  by  some  of  the  Upper  Liluet ; x  and  the 
origin  of  the  crests  in  Northwestern  America  is  ascribed  to  adven- 
tures with  crest  animals.'-  In  the  Trobriand  group  of  islands  (lying 
to  the  northeast  of  British  New  Guinea)  the  totems  are  said  to  have 
been  brought  by  the  first  men  ;  naturally  it  is  not  explained  whence 
and  how  the  men  got  them.3 

451.  These  instances  of  indirect  origination  (to  which  others  of 
the  sort  might  be  addedj  show  a  variety  of  points  of  view,  and 
may  be  variously  interpreted.  They  may  be  regarded  as  declen- 
sions from  an  earlier  belief  in  the  direct  descent  of  the  clan  from 
the  totem,  or  as  independent  conceptions  that  never  grew  into  this 
belief.  Both  these  ideas  of.  the  form  of  descent  are  found  in  widely 
separated  regions  and  in  communities  differing  one  from  another 
in  general  culture  and  in  the  degree  of  importance  they  attach  to 
the  totemic  constitution.  The  possibility  of  general  agreement  in 
myths,  with  difference  in  details,  between  tribes  remote  from  one 
another  is  illustrated  by  the  creation  myths  of  the  Australian 
Arunta  (who  have  an  elaborate  totemism)  and  the  Thompson 
River  Indians  of  Northwestern  America  (who  have  no  clan  totems, 
secret  societies,  or  dramatic  ceremonies)  ;  both  relate  transforma- 
tions of  primitive  unformed  persons,  but  in  the  former  the  creators 
are  half-human,  half-animal,  in  the  latter  they  are  men  who  trans- 
form half-human,  half-animal  beings.  Such  widespread  variations 
point  to  early  differences  in  social  conditions  and  in  intellectual 
endowments  with  the  nature  of  which  we  are  not  acquainted.4 

452.  (d)  Refusal  to  kill  or  eat  the  totem.  The  usages  in  regard 
to  killing  or  eating  the  totem  are  so  diverse,  and  often  so  uncertain, 

1  Teit,  Thompson  River  Indians,  p.  95. 

2  Swanton,  Tlingit  Myths,  and  fesup  North  Pacific  Expedition,  v,  231  ;  Boas,  The 
Kwakiutl,  pp.  323,  336  f. 

3  Seligmann,  The  Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  p.  679;  in  the  Louisiade 
group  belief  in  direct  descent  is  said  to  exist  (p.  743). 

■i  Cf.  the  remarks  of  Boas  in  the  Introduction  to  Teit's  Thompson  River  Indians. 


1 88     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

that  it  is  not  possible  to  lay  down  a  general  rule  of  prohibition. 
An  edible  totem  is  only  a  peculiar  sort  of  sacred  animal  or  plant, 
and  respect  for  such  objects  often  leads  to  refusal  to  kill  or  eat 

them an  interdiction  of  this  sort  does  not  in  itself  show  whether 

or  not  the  object  in  question  is  a  totem.  But  within  totemic  areas 
the  usage  varies  in  a  remarkable  manner,  as,  for  example,  in 
Australia.  In  the  north  there  is  complete  prohibition,  sometimes 
including  the  totems  of  a  man's  father,  mother,  and  father's  father. 
Among  the  central  tribes  a  man  kills  his  clan  totem  only  for  the 
benefit  of  other  clans,  and  eats  a  little  of  it  ceremonially.  In  the 
southeast  the  Dieri,  it  is  said,  kill  and  eat  their  totems  freely,  while 
other  tribes,  the  Wotjoballuk  and  others,  eat  them  only  at  a  pinch.1 
The  northeastern  tribes  have  many  food  taboos,  which,  however, 
relate  not  to  the  totemic  clans  but  to  the  exogamous  subclasses. 
A  modified  regard  for  the  totem  or  crest  (kobong)  appears  in 
West  Australia,  according  to  Sir  George  Grey's  report'2;  it  is 
not  allowable  to  kill  a  family  kobong  while  it  is  asleep,  and  it  is 
always  with  reluctance  that  it  is  killed. 

453.  Abstention  from  killing  and  eating  the  totem  holds,  as  a 
rule,  in  the  Torres  Straits  islands,  while  in  New  Guinea  the  cus- 
tom varies  —  the  totem  is  eaten  by  some  tribes,  not  eaten  by 
others. 

454.  In  Melanesia  the  food  restrictions  connected  with  ani- 
mal patrons  or  friends  of  clans  are  less  definite  than  in  Australia. 
Here,  also,  there  are  local  differences  of  usage.  Prohibition  of  eat- 
ing or  using  the  totem  (fish,  grass,  fowl,  and  so  forth)  was  found 
by  Rivers  in  the  Santa  Cruz  group  (in  Southern  Melanesia)  but 
not  in  the  northern  New  Hebrides.3  In  the  central  islands  the 
prohibition  refers  to  the  exogamous  classes,  and  a  similar  usage  is 
reported  as  existing  in  the  Duke  of  York  group  (in  the  north). 
The  Fijians  refrain  from  eating  their  tribal  sacred  animals. 

1  On  the  other  hand,  the  Kurnai,  who  are  not  totemic,  refrain,  apparently,  from 
eating  their  sex-patrons. 

2  This  report  was  made  in  1841,  before  the  natives  had  come  in  contact  with  the 
whites. 

a  In  the  Banks  Islands  the  restrictions  of  eating  relate  to  the  patrons  of  individual 
persons;  see  lournal  of  the  Royal  Anthropological  Institute,  xxxix,  165  f. 


TOTEM  ISM  AND   TABOO  189 

455.  In  Polynesia  family  gods  appear  instead  of  totems,  and 
the  incarnations  of  gods  (in  animals  and  plants)  are  not  eaten ; 
such  is  the  rule  in  Samoa  and  Tonga,  and  this  was  formerly  the 
practice  in  Hawaii.  The  food  restrictions  in  Borneo  and  Sumatra 
are  not  definitely  totemic. 

456.  The  non-Aryan  tribes  of  India  generally  refrain  from  eat- 
ing their  totems,  or,  in  some  cases,  from  injuring  or  using  them  ; 
and  this  is  true  even  of  those  tribes  (for  example,  the  Khonds  and 
Oraons  of  Bengal)  that  have  somewhat  developed  theistic  systems. 
Occasionally  exemptions  from  the  rule  of  abstention  are  procured, 
perhaps  under  Aryan  influence ;  such  influence  has  affected  many 
of  the  tribes,  but  has  not  usually  destroyed  the  old  totemic  customs. 
Among  the  Todas  (in  the  south),  however,  Rivers  found  only 
feeble  suggestions  of  totemic  objects  and  food  restrictions ;  the 
buffalo-cult  seems  to  have  ousted  all  others.1 

457.  Among  the  native  tribes  of  Africa  there  is  special  respect 
for  the  object  with  which  the  clan  or  tribe  has  particularly  definite 
relations.  The  Bakuana  do  not  eat  the  animal  whose  name  is 
borne  by  the  clan  ;  if  an  animal  (the  lion,  for  example)  is  danger- 
ous, it  is  killed  with  an  apology.  The  Herrero  (of  German  South- 
east Africa)  abstain  from  the  flesh  of  the  chameleon,  and  will  not 
eat  gray  sheep  or  oxen.  Among  the  half-civilized  Baganda,  of  the 
east,  certain  of  the  clans  refrain  from  eating  the  object  from  which 
a  clan  takes  its  name ;  the  noteworthy  political  organization  of 
these  people  seems  to  have  obliterated  old  clan  functions  in  part. 
In  the  west  (Senegambia,  Ashanti,  Dahomi,  Nigeria,  Congo)  there 
are  food  restrictions,  but  these  are  not  generally  connected  with 
totemic  social  organizations. 

458.  There  is  little  evidence  for  totemic  food  restrictions  in  North 
America.  The  custom  of  apologizing  to  an  animal  on  killing  it, 
frequent  elsewhere,  is  reported  as  existing  among  the  Algonkin 
Ottawas  and  Menomini ;  but  this  is  not  necessarily  totemic.  The 
more  advanced  tribes  of  the  East  and  South  (Algonkin,  Iroquois, 
Creeks,  Choctaws,  Chickasas,  Cherokees,  Natchez),  the  peoples  of 
the  Pacific  Coast,  and  the  agricultural  tribes  of  the  middle  of  the 

1  Rivers,  The  Todas.  Index,  s.v.  Food,  restriction  on. 


190     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

continent  (Pueblos,  Mandans,  and  others)  appear  to  be  free  from 
restrictions  as  to  eating.  The  Navahos  are  said  to  refrain  from 
the  flesh  of  fish,  turkeys,  swine,  and  bears,  but  the  grounds  of  the 
interdiction  are  not  clear.1  The  distinctest  evidence  of  totemistic 
clan  food-taboos  are  found  among  the  Siouan  Caddos  (of  the 
southern  Mississippi  Valley)  and  the  Omahas  (of  the  Middle 
West).  Both  these  groups  are  in  part  agricultural,  and  it  does 
not  appear  how  they  have  come  to  differ  from  their  neighbors 
in  this  regard.  Food  restrictions  are  reported  for  the  North- 
west region.2 

459.  There  is  no  clear  report  of  totemic  food  restrictions  in 
Central  America  or  in  South  America ; 3  but  these  regions  have  as 
yet  not  been  thoroughly  examined  for  clan  usages. 

460.  (e)  Magical  ceremonies  for  increasing  the  supply  of  food. 
Such  ceremonies  exist,  or  have  existed,  in  many  regions  and  among 
peoples  of  various  grades  of  culture,  civilized  as  well  as  savage, 
but  the  cases  in  which  they  are,  or  were,  conducted  by  totemistic 
clans  are  comparatively  few.  This  sort  of  economic  function  of 
the  totem  clan  is  most  definite  and  important  in  Central  and  parts 
of  Southeast  Australia,  where  every  clan  is  charged  with  the 
duty  of  increasing  the  supply  of  its  totem  for  the  benefit  of  its 
connected  clans ;  and  magical  rites  are  performed  in  the  fertile 
coast  region  no  less  than  in  the  arid  region  about  Lake  Eyre- — ■ 
that  is,  in  these  cases  the  employment  of  magic  seems  not  to  be 
conditioned  on  the  natural  resources  of  the  land.  Similar  totemic 
clan  functions  appear  in  the  islands  of  Torres  Straits,  the  Turtle 
and  Dugong  clans  performing  ceremonies  to  increase  the  supply 
of  turtles  and  to  attract  dugongs.  Magical  control  of  totems  for 
the  benefit  of  the  whole  community  is  reported  to  be  found  in  the 
Siouan  Omaha  clans  (in  the  center  of  the  North  American  conti- 
nent). The  tribes  just  mentioned  are  those  in  which  the  social 
organization  is  definitely  totemistic. 

1  Cf.  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  239,  note  169  ;  Franciscan  Fathers,  Ethnologic 
Dictionary,  p.  507.  2  Teit,  Thompson  River  Indians,  p.  "jj. 

3  Cf.  A.  M.  Tozzer,  Comparative  Study  of  the  Mayas  and  the  Lacandones  (of 
Yucatan),  and  the  literature  given  in  articles  "America,  South"  and  "Brazil"  in 
Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  191 

461.  Elsewhere  the  economic  function  attaches  to  other  bodies 
than  totemic  clans,  as  in  parts  of  Southeast  Australia,  and  in 
West  Australia  (where  the  ceremonies  are  conducted  by  the  ex- 
ogamous  classes).  In  New  Guinea  the  totemic  character  of  the 
performances  appears  to  be  doubtful.  A  single  instance  of  clan 
action  has  been  found  among  the  East  African  Baganda  —  the 
women  of  the  Grasshopper  clan  undertake  to  increase  the  supply 
of  their  totem  ;  why  this  duty  is  assigned  to  the  women  is  not 
clear  —  the  custom  appears  to  involve  a  relaxation  of  totemistic 
rules.  The  economic  festivals  and  "  dances  "  of  the  Siouan  Man- 
dans  and  Hidatsa  are  general  tribal  ceremonies.  Among  the 
Pueblo  Indians  such  rites  are  the  care  of  religious  fraternities ; r 
the  Zuni  Frog  clan  performs  a  ceremony  to  procure  rain,  but 
this  duty  is  mainly  committed  to  rain-priests.  In  Northwestern 
America  the  magical  performances  are  not  connected  with  to- 
temic clans. 

462.  Definition  of  totemism.  It  appears,  then,  that  not  one  of 
the  points  just  mentioned  is  found  invariably  in  the  systems  of 
organization  commonly  called  totemic.  Exogamy  is  an  independ- 
ent phenomenon ;  the  clan  does  not  always  bear  the  name  of  the 
totem,  and  is  not  always  held  to  have  descended  from  it ;  usages 
in  regard  to  eating  it  vary  greatly ;  magical  economic  ceremonies 
are  performed  by  other  than  totemic  bodies.  There  is  no  known 
clan  that  includes  all  these  elements  in  its  organization,  though  in 
Central  Australia  there  is  an  approach  to  complete  inclusion  ;  the 
features  lacking  are  clan  exogamy  and  absolute  prohibition  of  eat- 
ing the  totem,  but  practically  a  clan  does  not  eat  its  totem,  and 
exogamy,  for  reasons  given  above,  may  be  left  out  of  considera- 
tion. The  Central  Australian  system  may  be  said  to  be  substan- 
tially complete  ;  with  it  the  North  American  systems  stand  in  sharp 
contrast,  and  from  it  many  others  diverge. 

463.  But,  with  all  these  differences,  the  fact  remains  that  in 
totemism  the  human  group  stands  in  a  peculiar  relation  to  some 

1  J.  W.  Fewkes  is  of  opinion  that  the  great  Snake  dance  (an  economic  function) 
was  formerly  conducted  by  the  Snake  clan  {Sixteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau 
of  American  Ethnology,  p.  304). 


192     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

nonhuman  object.1  This  general  statement  must,  however,  be  de- 
fined in  two  particulars :  the  relation  is  an  alliance  for  the  benefit  of 
both  parties;  and  the  nonhuman  object  is  not  regarded  as  a  god  and 
is  not  worshiped.  The  first  of  these  particulars  marks  totemism 
off  from  that  general  regard  that  is  paid  by  savages  to  animals, 
plants,  certain  heavenly  bodies,  and  other  physical  things ; 2  the 
second  particular  distinguishes  it  from  the  cult  of  ghosts  and  gods 
proper.  We  may  therefore  define  it  as  an  alliance,  offensive  and  de- 
fensive, between  a  human  group  and  a  nonhuman  group  or  object 
that  is  not  worshiped,  the  friendly  relation  existing  between  every 
member  of  the  one  group  and  every  member  of  the  other  group.3 

464.  This  relation  having  been  formed,  the  various  features 
mentioned  above  will  naturally  become  attached  to  it  in  various 
ways  and  to  different  extents.  The  clan  will  somehow  get  a  name, 
when  and  how  we  need  not  now  ask  ;  usually  its  name  is  that  of 
the  totem  —  this  is  in  keeping  with  the  intimate  connection  between 
the  two.  To  trace  the  origin  of  the  clan  to  the  totem  is  only  to  do 
what  is  done  abundantly  among  uncivilized  and  civilized  peoples 
(Hebrews,  Greeks,  and  others) ;  the  eponymous  ancestor  is  con- 
structed out  of  the  current  name  of  the  clan.  To  refrain  from  kill- 
ing or  eating  a  friendly  animal  or  plant  is  a  simple  mark  of  respect. 
The  conception  of  special  ability  in  a  clan  to  insure  a  supply  of  its 
totem  for  food  is  in  accord  with  savage  ideas  of  magical  endow- 
ment. When  the  custom  of  exogamy  arose  it  would  naturally  at- 
tach to  the  clan  as  the  social  unit. 

465.  In  view  of  the  diverse  physical  surroundings  of  the  tribes 
of  the  earth  and  their  intellectual  differences,  it  cannot  be  surprising 


1  The  choice  of  the  object  is  determined  by  local  conditions  that  are  not  known 
to  us.  Sometimes,  probably,  the  object  is  the  one  most  important  for  the  welfare 
of  the  community ;  sometimes  it  may  have  come  from  accident.    See  below,  §  554  ff. 

2  The  artificial  objects  that  are  regarded,  in  a  few  cases,  as  totems  are  probably 
of  late  origin,  the  product  of  reflection,  and  thus  differing  from  the  old  totems,  which 
arise  in  an  unreflective  time.  However,  the  artificial  totems  are  doubtless  sometimes 
looked  on  as  powerful ;  in  some  cases  they  may  be  little  more  than  badges. 

3  This  is  Frazer's  definition  (in  his  Totemism,  p.  1),  supplemented  by  the  words 
"  not  worshiped."  Cf.,  on  the  whole  subject,  Tylor,  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropological 
Institute,  xxviii,  144  ;  F.  Boas,  in  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  xxi ;  A.  A.  Golden- 
weiser,  "Totemism,"  in  Journal  of American  Folklore ,  xxiii  (1910). 


T0TE.1 1 TSM  AND  TABOO  193 

that  they  have  combined  these  elements  of  organization  in  various 
ways.  In  their  efforts  to  secure  food,  good  marriage  relations,  pro- 
tection of  property,  and  defense  against  enemies,  they  have  from 
time  to  time  adopted  such  measures  as  the  circumstances  made 
desirable  and  possible.  There  is  evidence  that  in  some  instances 
clans  have  changed  their  social  regulations,  sometimes  by  a  process 
of  internal  growth,  sometimes  by  borrowing  from  without.  It  is 
not  always  possible  to  trace  such  movements,  and  it  is  impossible 
now  to  say  what  the  earliest  social  constitution  of  men  was.  The 
probability  is  that  the  earliest  state  was  an  unformed  one,  without 
governmental  or  other  institutions,  and  that  totemism  was  one  of 
the  first  attempts  to  introduce  order  into  society.  In  accordance 
with  what  is  said  above,  the  term  '  totemism  '  may  be  used  to 
mean  particularly  a  simple  alliance  between  men  and  nonhuman 
things,  and  then  more  generally  to  mean  such  an  alliance  com- 
bined, in  whatever  way,  with  one  or  more  of  the  particular  customs 
described  in  preceding  paragraphs.1 

466.  Geographical  survey  of  totem istic  usages.  If  totemism  be 
taken  in  the  simpler  sense,  as  a  certain  sort  of  intimate  relation 
between  men  and  nonhuman  things,  it  will  be  found  to  be  widely 
distributed  in  the  noncivilized  world.  Its  occurrence  becomes  rarer 
in  proportion  as  adjuncts  are  attached  to  it ;  as  is  remarked  above, 
it  is  hardly  possible  to  find  a  clan  whose  constitution  embraces 
all  adjuncts.  Where  usages  like  exogamy  occur,  or  where  there  is 
reverence  for  an  object,  without  belief  in  a  definite,  nontheistic 
relation  between  a  human  clan  and  a  nonhuman  object,  we  cannot 
recognize  totemism  proper;  such  usages  must  be  treated  as 
belonging  to  man's  general  attitude  toward  his  nonhuman  asso- 
ciates. The  question  whether  they  represent  germinal  or  deca- 
dent 'totemism,  or  neither,  must  be  considered  separately  in 
every  case. 

467.  The  two  great  totemistic  regions  of  the  world  are  Australia 
and  North  America,  and  in  each  of  these  the  variations  of  custom 
run  through  the  gamut  of  possible  differences.  In  each  of  them 
also  the  native  population  may  include  different  stocks,  though  on 

1  For  a  preciser  definition  of  totemism  sec  below,  §  520. 


194     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

this  point  there  is  uncertainty.  Differences  of  climate  and  topo- 
graphical situations  there  are,  but  these  do  not  always  account  for 
the  diversities  of  culture  and  custom.1 

468.  Australia.  In  the  heart  of  Central  Australia  (the  home  of 
the  Arunta  and  other  tribes)  there  are  clans  that  bear  the  names 
of  their  totems,  and  trace  their  descent  from  half-human  totem 
ancestors,  with  whom  they  consider  themselves  to  be  identical; 
totems,  however,  are  not  hereditary,  but  are  determined  by  the 
ancestor  connected  with  the  place  where  the  mother  first  becomes 
aware  of  the  child  within  her;  each  clan  performs  magical  cere- 
monies to  secure  a  supply  of  its  totem  for  the  associated  clans,  and, 
when  the  totem  is  an  animal  or  a  plant,  hunts  or  gathers  it  and 
brings  it  to  be  distributed  ;  at  the  distribution  the  headman  of  the 
providing  clan  must  eat  a  little  of  the  food  ceremonially,  and  at 
other  times  clansmen  eat  of  it  sparingly  ;  '2  the  rule  of  exogamy  re- 
lates not  to  the  totemic  clans,  but  to  the  phratries  or  subphratries. 

469.  In  the  South  Central  region  these  features  are  found,  with 
an  exception  in  the  rule  concerning  eating  one's  totem.  Sometimes, 
as  in  the  Urabanna  tribe,  such  eating  is  for.bidden.  But  among  the 
Warramunga  there  is  a  relaxation  of  the  rule  in  the  case  of  old 
people  —  for  them  the  food  restriction  is  removed  (apparently 
a  humanitarian  provision)  ;  on  the  other  hand,  for  other  clansfolk 
there  is  an  extension  of  the  rule  —  the  prohibition  includes  two 
subclasses  of  the  moiety  to  which  the  clan  belongs,  and  condition- 
ally includes  the  whole  moiety  (this  is  perhaps  a  cautionary  meas- 
ure, to  guard  against  the  possibility  of  unlawful  eating  on  the  part 
of  clansmen). 

470.  The  special  feature  in  North  Australia  (on  the  shores  of 
the  Gulf  of  Carpentaria)  is  the  absolute  prohibition  of  eating  the 
totem.  In  regard  to  the  performance  of  magical  ceremonies  for 
increase  of  the  totem  also  there  is  the  peculiarity  that  a  clan  is  not 
bound  to  conduct  such  performances  —  it  is  optional  with  it  to  do 


1  The  details  are  given  in  Frazer's  Totemism  and  Exogamy. 

2  Certain  Arunta  traditions  appear  to  point  to  a  time  when  the  totem  was  freely 
eaten.  The  bird-mates  of  the  clans  may  be  regarded  as  secondary  totems  — perhaps 
a  survival  from  a  time  when  a  clan  might  have  more  than  one  totem. 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  195 

so  or  not ;  it  has  magical  power,  but  is  not  required  by  custom  to 
exercise  it.  It  is  suggested  by  Spencer  and  Gillen  that  this  varia- 
tion from  the  usage  of  the  Central  region  is  to  be  attributed  to  the 
more  regular  rainfall  on  the  coast,  which  insures  a  more  regular 
supply  of  food  and  thus  docs  away  with  the  necessity  for  magic.1 
Possibly,  also,  this  climatic  feature  may  account  for  the  stricter  rule 
of  prohibition  mentioned  above  ;  as  the  rule  is  sometimes  relaxed 
when  it  is  hard  to  get  food,  so,  on  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  strictly 
enforced  when  food  is  plentiful. 

471.  Still  a  different  situation  appears  in  the  southeastern  part 
of  the  continent  (New  South  Wales  and  Victoria)  —  several  promi- 
nent features  of  the  Central  system  are  absent.  The  Dieri  clans 
bear  the  names  of  their  totems,  from  which  also  they  think  them- 
selves descended,  but  they  eat  them  freely.  Some  adjacent  tribes 
eat  them  only  at  a  pinch,  others  refrain  from  them.  The  clans  of 
the  Narrinyeri  are  mostly  localized,  and  the  clan-names  are  not 
now  those  of  the  totems  ; 2  the  totems  are  eaten.  The  Kurnai  show 
the  greatest  divergence  from  the  ordinary  type  —  they  have  neither 
totemic  clans  nor  exogamous  classes ;  their  rule  of  exogamy  relates 
to  districts.  Throughout  the  southeast  the  conduct  of  magical  eco- 
nomic ceremonies  by  clans,  every  clan  being  responsible  for  its  own 
totem,  seems  not  to  exist. 

472.  In  certain  tribes  (the  Wotjoballuk,  the  Yuin,  the  Kurnai, 
and  others)  there  are  sex-patrons,  animals  intimately  related  to 
all  the  males  or  all  the  females  of  the  tribe ;  the  belief  is  said  to 
be  that  the  life  of  any  individual  of  the  animal  group  is  the  life 
of  a  man  or  a  woman,  and  neither  sex  group  will  kill  its  patron 
animal.  So  far  as  regards  the  conception  of  identity  with  the 
animal  and  reverence  for  it,  the  institution  agrees  with  the  usual 
totemic  type ;  but  since  it  is  not  connected  with  clans,  some  such 
designation  for  the  animal  as  "patron"  or  "guardian"  is  to  be 
preferred  to  "  totem." 3  Such  animals,  protectors  of  sexes,  are 
of  rare  occurrence,  having  been  certainly  found   so  far  only  in 

1  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Northern  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  pp.  173,  3uS- 

2  The  clan-names  may  formerly  have  been  totemic,  but  data  for  the  decision  of 
this  point  are  lacking.  3  So  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  iv,  1 73. 


196     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Southeast  Australia,  and  they  occur  in  a  body  of  tribes  that  show  a 
disposition  to  discard  the  clan  constitution.  In  this  region  individual 
men  also  sometimes  have  animal  guardians,  so  that  a  general  tend- 
ency toward  individualism  may  be  recognized.  It  is  not  unnatural 
to  connect  this  tendency  with  the  fertility  of  the  south  coast,  which 
may  weaken  the  clan  organization.  The  organization  by  sex  is  a 
singular  phenomenon,  of  the  history  of  which  there  are  no  records. 
It  is  doubtless  a  special  development  of  the  widespread  separation 
o(  the  sexes,  combined  with  an  increasing  recognition  of  the  prop- 
erty rights  and  the  social  equality  of  women.  At  an  early  age  boys 
were  often  kept  apart  from  girls.  Special  taboos,  of  food  and 
other  things,  were  imposed  on  women.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
were  in  some  cases  the  owners  of  the  tribal  property,  and  were 
sometimes  admitted  to  membership  in  secret  societies.  The 
organization  of  the  sex  would  follow  under  peculiarly  favorable 
conditions.1 

473.  The  remaining  districts  of  Australia  have  been  less  care- 
fully investigated  than  the  central  and  southern  parts,  and  informa- 
tion about  their  totemistic  customs  is  not  always  satisfactory.  So 
far  as  the  accounts  go  there  is  a  widespread  divergence  from  simple 
clan  organization  in  these  districts.  In  Northeast  Australia  (Queens- 
land) there  are  exogamous  subclasses,  and  no  clan  taboos.  In  the 
southwest  not  clans  but  families  are  the  social  units ;  these  trace 
their  descent  from  animals,  and  there  are  individual  animal  patrons. 
In  the  northwest  no  clan  organization  is  reported ;  there  is  class 
exogamy,  and  in  the  magical  ceremonies  the  performers  are  taken 
from  the  exogamous  classes. 

474.  Torres  Straits  Islands.  These  noteworthy  variations  in  the 
totemism  of  the  Australian  continent  appear  to  be  connected  in  a 
general  way  with  differences  of  climate  and  the  degree  of  isolation 
of  the  clans  and  tribes.  Similar  variations  appear  in  the  Torres 
Straits  islands  and  in  British  New  Guinea.  In  the  western  islands 
of  the  Straits  (the  only  part  in  which  distinct  totemism  has  been 

1  Cf.  H.Webster,  Primitive  Secret  Societies,  pp.  1,  121  ff. ;  Crawley,  The  Mystic 
Rose,  pp.  41  f.,  45,  350,  454  ff. ;  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Develop7?tcnt  of  the  Moral 
Ideas,  ii,  28  ff. ;  Hobhouse,  Morals  in  Evolution,  i,  183  ff.,  188  ff. 


TOTEM  ISM  A  XD   TABOO 


197 


found)  the  social  organization  is  to  a  certain  extent  independent  of 
totemic  relations  :  the  clans  are  locally  segregated,  and  marriage 
is  mainly  regulated  by  blood-kinship.  On  the  other  hand,  an  in- 
timate relation  between  a  man  and  his  totem  is  recognized  —  the 
latter,  as  a  rule,  is  not  eaten  by  the  related  clansmen  (there  are 
exceptions),  magical  economic  ceremonies  are  performed  by  certain 
clans,  and  there  is  clan  exogamy.  A  possible  survival  of  an  early 
social  arrangement  is  the  existence  of  subsidiary  totems. 

475.  There  is  also  a  rudimentary  cult  of  heroes  :  two  of  these 
(animal  in  form)  have  shrines  and  effigies,  annual  dances  are  per- 
formed in  their  honor,  and  stones  are  shown  in  which  their  souls 
are  supposed  to  dwell.  The  resemblance  of  this  cult  to  certain  forms 
of  worship  in  Polynesia  (in  Samoa,  for  example)  is  apparent ;  the 
stones  may  be  compared  with  similar  abodes  of  superhuman  animals 
or  spirits  in  Central  Australia  and  elsewhere  ;  the  myths  connect 
the  two  animal  heroes  with  the  origin  of  totems  —  a  common  pro- 
cedure. One  hero,  Kwoiam  of  Mabuiag,  is  said  to  have  been  a  real 
man,  and  to  have  been  almost  deified ;  divinization  of  dead  men  is 
not  unusual  in  Polynesia. 

476.  Xcw  Guinea.  In  the  eastern  portion  of  British  New  Guinea 
the  peculiarities  of  organization  are *  that  the  people  live  in  hamlets  ; 
that  there  is  generally  a  combination  of  totems  in  a  clan ;  and  that 
special  regard  is  paid  to  the  father's  totem.  There  is  no  report  of 
belief  in  descent  from  the  totem.2  The  hamlets  tend  to  become  family 
groups,  but  clan  exogamy  is  observed.  The  system  of  "  linked 
totems  "  seems  to  be  designed  to  secure  superhuman  aid  from  all 
departments  of  the  nonhuman  world  :  ordinarily  there  will  be  a 
bird,  a  fish,  a  snake,  and  a  plant  —  the  bird  has  come  to  be  the 
most  important  of  these.  A  man  may  kill  his  own  totem  but  not 
his  father's  —  a  rule  that  has  arisen  perhaps  from  a  displacement 
of  matrilineal  descent  (according  to  which  a  man's  totem  is  that  of 
his  mother)  by  descent  through  the  father.    So  far  as  appears,  there 


1  C.  G.  Seligmann,  Tin-  Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  chaps,  xxxv,  1. 

2  Such  a  belief  is  said  to  exist  in  the  Aru  archipelago  (Papuan)  west  of  New 
Guinea.  There  the  family,  and  not  the  clan,  is  the  social  unit ;  every  family  has  its 
badge  or  crest. 


198      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

are  no  magical  ceremonies  for  increase  of  the  supply  of  food.  In 
both  New  Guinea  and  the  Straits  the  fact  that  old  customs  are 
disappearing  under  foreign  influence  increases  the  difficulty  of  de- 
termining whether  certain  usages  are  primitive  or  decadent. 

477.  Melanesia.  The  social  organization  in  the  vast  mass  of 
islands  called  Melanesia1  has  not  been  fully  investigated,  but  the 
existence  of  some  general  features  has  been  established.  Society 
is  divided  not  into  clans  or  tribes,  but  into  exogamous  classes,  and 
the  classificatory  system  of  relationships  is  general.  The  rules  gov- 
erning marriage  are  less  elaborate  than  in  Australia,  the  method 
of  initiation  is  simpler,  and  the  political  organization  is  more  defi- 
nite. In  regard  to  other  usages  commonly  associated  with  totem- 
ism  the  reported  details  are  not  numerous.  There  appears  to  be 
a  movement  away  from  Australian  totemism,  growing  more  pro- 
nounced as  we  go  eastward,  and  culminating  in  Fiji,  in  which 
totemic  features  are  very  rare. 

478.  In  the  Bismarck  Archipelago  every  class  has  connected 
with  it  certain  animals  regarded  as  relatives,  but  in  New  Britain, 
apparently,  not  as  ancestors.2  In  New  Ireland  dances  imitating  the 
movements  of  the  sacred  animals  are  performed.  Such  animals  are 
treated  with  great  respect,  and  the  relation  to  them  constitutes  a 
bond  of  union  between  members  of  a  class. 

479.  Some  peculiarities  appear  in  the  Solomon  Islands.  While 
there  is  the  usual  regard  for  the  sacred  objects  (called  butd),  so  that 
these  are  not  to  be  eaten  (in  some  cases  not  to  be  touched  or  seen), 
the  names  of  the  classes  are  not  always  those  of  the  sacred  things, 
and  there  is  difference  of  opinion  among  the  natives  as  to  whether 
the  latter  are  ancestors  or  merely  associated  with  an  ancestor :  a 
man  (particularly  a  chief)  may  announce  that  after  death  he  will 
be  incarnate  in  a  given  thing,  as,  for  example,  a  banana  —  this 
then  becomes  sacred.  But  in  some  cases  3  the  god  of  the  class  is 
regarded  as  the  ancestor ;  instead  of  a  number  of  sacred  animals 

1  Melanesia  is  here  taken  to  include  the  Bismarck  Archipelago  (New  Britain, 
New  Ireland,  and  adjacent  islands)  and  the  islands  lying  to  the  eastward  as  far  as 
the  180th  meridian  of  longitude,  though  in  this  area  there  is  in  some  places  Polynesian 
influence.        2  So  Reverend  George  Brown,  Melanesians  and  Polynesians,  p.  28. 

3  This  usage  is  reported  for  Florida  Island. 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  199 

there  is  a  theistic  system  with  regular  worship  —  a  state  of  things 
quite  distinct  from  totemism.1 

480.  In  the  New  Hebrides  group  there  is  mention  of  a  slight 
magical  ceremony  performed  by  a  member  of  a  class  to  attract  a 
class  animal,  but  there  is  no  rule  against  eating  the  object  whose 
name  the  class  bears.  The  usage  in  the  Santa  Cruz  group  in  re- 
gard to  eating,  and  the  belief  as  to  descent  from  the  sacred  object, 
differ  in  different  islands ;  they  are  sometimes  lax  and  vague,  some- 
times strict  and  definite. 

481.  Belief  in  a  vital  connection  between  a  man  and  some  object 
chosen  by  himself  is  found  in  the  Banks  Islands  ;  there  is  an  obvious 
similarity  between  such  an  object  and  the  North  American  manitu. 
Further,  the  belief  is  reported  by  Rivers  that  in  these  islands  the 
character  of  a  child  is  determined  by  an  edible  object  from  which 
the  mother,  before  the  birth  of  the  child,  received  some  sort  of 
influence  ;  the  child  will*  resemble  the  object  or  be  identified  with 
it,  and  will  not,  throughout  life,  eat  of  it.2 

482.  In  the  easternmost  group,  the  Fijian,  the  relation  between 
the  tribes  and  their  associated  sacred  animals  and  plants  was,  and 
is,  various.  The  rule  was  that  these  should  not  be  injured,  and,  if 
edible,  should  not  be  eaten.  But  alongside  of  such  sacred  objects 
real  gods  are  found ;  these  dwell  or  are  incarnate  in  certain  birds, 
fish,  and  plants,  and  sometimes  in  men.  In  one  district,  in  the  in- 
terior of  the  large  island  Viti  Levu,  Rivers  learned  that  every  village 
had  its  deity,  which  in  many  cases  might  turn  into  an  animal,  and 
the  animal  would  then  become  taboo ; 3  the  familiar  custom  of  not 
eating  a  sacred  thing  was  thus  extended  to  any  new  object  of  this 
sort.  The  functions  of  the  tribal  sacred  animals  approached  in 
some  points  those  of  gods  :  they  were  consulted  by  magicians  on 
important  occasions  (war,  sickness,  marriage).  It  was  supposed 
(somewhat  as  in  the  Banks  Islands)  that  the  tribal  sacred  animal 
appeared  to  a  mother  just  before  the  birth  of  her  child. 

1  On  the  question  whether  these  gods  are  a  development  out  of  totem  animals  see 
below,  §  577. 

2  On  the  relation  of  this  idea  to  Frazcr's  theory  of  "  conceptional  totemism  "  see 
below,  §  548. 

3  It  might  then  seem  that  the  deity  was  originally  the  animal  :   see  below,  §  577. 


200     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

483.  Thus  in  Melanesia,  along  with  a  large  mass  of  sacred  ob- 
jects connected  more  or  less  intimately  with  social  units  (but  not 
with  clans  proper),  there  are  usages  and  ideas  that  are  commonly 
found  associated  with  clan  totemism  (belief  in  descent  from  a  sacred 
thing  and  refusal  to  eat  it  when  it  is  edible),  but  also  other  ideas 
and  usages  (omens  from  animals ;  superhuman  determination,  before 
a  child's  birth,  of  its  character ;  creation  of  a  new  sacred  thing  by 
an  individual  man)  that  look  away  from  clan  organization  to  an 
individualistic  form  of  society.1 

484.  Micronesia  and  Polynesia.  The  character  of  the  social 
organization  in  Micronesia  (the  Caroline  and  Pelew  groups,  with 
which  may  be  included  the  little  island  of  Tikopia,  southeast  of 
the  Santa  Cruz  group)  is  not  very  well  known,  but  the  published 
reports  indicate  a  considerable  divergence  from  clan  totemism.  The 
westernmost  island  of  the  Carolines,  Uap  (or  Yap),  according  to  a 
recent  observer,2  retains  many  old  beliefs,  is  without  an  exogamous 
system,  and  has  a  large  apparatus  of  spirits  and  gods.  Elsewhere 
in  the  Carolines  and  in  Tikopia  there  are  nonexogamous  social 
groups,  sacred  animals  greatly  revered,  and  in  some  places  belief 
in  descent  from  an  animal-god.  Sacred  animals  and  village  gods 
(with  exogamous  families)  are  found  in  the  Pelew  group.3  The 
diversity  in  Micronesian  customs  may  be  due  in  part  to  mixture 
of  tribes  resulting  from  migrations. 

485.  In  Polynesia  the  family  is  generally  the  social  unit,  and  there 
is  a  fairly  good  political  organization,  with  more  or  less  developed 
pantheons.  Gods  are  held  to  be  incarnate  in  animals  and  trees, 
but  there  are  also  great  gods  divorced  to  some  extent  from  phe- 
nomena. The  theistic  development  is  noteworthy  in  Hawaii,  New 
Zealand,  Samoa,  Tahiti,  and  Tonga,  and  there  are  elaborate  forms 
of  worship  with  priests  and  temples.  The  existing  organization  is 
not  totemic,  but  here,  as  elsewhere  in  similar  cases,  the  question 
has  been  raised  whether  or  not  the  gods  have  arisen  from  sacred 

1  As  to  the  significance  of  this  fact  cf.  below,  §  529  ff. 

-  W.  H.  Furness,  3d,  The  Island  of  Stone-Money. 

3  On  the  large  theistic  material  of  the  Pelews  see  Frazer,  Adonis  Attis  Osiris, 
pp.  386,  428  ff.,  with  references  to  J.  Kubary,  "  Die  Religion  der  Pelauer"  (in  A. 
Bastian's  Allerlci  mis  Volks-  und  Maischaikimde). 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  201 

(or,  more  definitely,  totemic)  animals  and  plants,1  and  whether,  in 
general,  the  existing  organization  was  preceded  by  one  approaching 
totemism.2 

486.  Indonesia.  The  Battas  of  the  interior  of  Sumatra  have  clan 
exogamy  (but  the  clans  live  mixed  together),  and  every  clan  has 
sacred  animals  which  it  is  unlawful  to  eat.  One  clan  on  the  west 
coast  asserts  its  descent  from  a  tiger.  In  the  Moluccas  villages 
claim  descent  from  animals  or  plants,  and  these  are  taboo.  The 
indications  of  totemic  organization  in  Borneo  are  slight :  there  are 
sacred  animals  that  are  not  eaten,  and  there  is  a  vague  feeling  of 
kinship  with  animals  —  phenomena  that  are  not  necessarily  totemic. 
The  belief  of  the  Sea  Dyaks  in  individual  guardians  is  to  be  distin- 
guished from  general  respect  for  sacred  animals. 

487.  India.  The  non-Aryan  peoples  of  India  are  divided  into 
a  large  number  of  exogamous  clans,  each  with  its  sacred  object, 
which  it  is  unlawful  to  injure  or  use.3  A  departure  from  ordinary 
totemic  usage  appears  in  the  fact  that  in  many  cases  the  sacred 
objects  receive  worship.  The  social  constitution  of  these  peoples 
seems  to  have  undergone  modifications,  partly  through  adoption  of 
agriculture  (which  has  occurred  generally),  partly  by  direct  Hindu 
religious  influence ;  the  history  of  the  non-Aryans,  however,  is  ob- 
scure in  many  points.  The  Aryans  of  India  have  exogamv  but  not 
totemism,  and  this  is  true  in  part  of  the  Assamese.  Totemism  has 
not  been  observed  in  Burma4  and  China,  or  in  the  Malay  Peninsula. 

488.  North  America.  The  North  American  native  tribes,  scat- 
tered over  a  large  territory,  with  widely  different  climatic  and 
topographical  features,  and  themselves  divided  into  half  a  dozen  lin- 
guistic stocks,  show  great  diversities  of  social  organization.  While 
exogamous  groups  (clans,  phratries,  and  local  groups)  are  found 

i  Cf.  below,  §  577. 

2  Exogamy  is  said  to  exist  in  the  atoll  Lua  Niua,  in  the  Lord  Howe  group  ;  the 
population  is  described  as  Polynesian  (Brown,  Melanesians  and  Polynesians. 
p.  414  ff.)  ;  Dr.  Brown  thinks  it  probable  that  exogamous  classes  formerly  existed 
in  Samoa,  to  which  place  the  Lua  Niua  people,  he  holds,  art-  ultimately  to  be  traced. 

3  Certain  septs  (among  the  Telugus  and  others)  are  named  from  inanimate  (some 
times  artificial)  objects. 

4  The  usages  mentioned  in  article  "  Burma"  in  Hastings.  Encyclopaedia  of  Reli- 
gion and  Ethics^  III,  24,  do  not  necessarily  show  totemism. 


202     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

almost  everywhere,  there  is  little  precise  information  about  certain 
fundamental  points  of  totemic  systems,  particularly  customs  of  kill- 
ing and  eating  the  totem  and  belief  in  descent  from  it.  With  a 
general  apparatus  that  often  suggests  an  original  totemism,  the 
American  social  type  differs  considerably  from  the  Australian,  re- 
sembling in  some  respects  the  Melanesian  and  the  Polynesian,  but 
with  peculiarities  that  difference  it  from  these.  Among  the  Eskimo 
and  the  Californians  no  definite  signs  of  totemism  have  been  dis- 
covered. Among  the  other  peoples  the  Rocky  Mountain  range 
makes  a  line  of  demarcation  —  the  tribes  of  the  Pacific  Coast  differ 
in  organization  decidedly  not  only  from  their  eastern  neighbors 
but  also  from  all  other  known  savage  and  half-civilized  peoples. 
There  are  points  of  similarity  to  these,  but  the  general  Pacific 
Coast  type  is  unique. 

489.  Beginning  with  the  Eastern  tribes,  we  find  that  the  Iroquois 
and  their  allies  (Mohawks,  Senecas,  and  others),1  mainly  agricultural, 
had  the  tribe  or  the  phratry  rather  than  the  clan  as  their  political 
and  religious  unit.  The  Iroquois  League,  organized  by  the  great 
statesman  Hiawatha  in  the  fifteenth  century,  was  a  federal  union 
of  five  (later  of  six)  tribes  that  showed  remarkable  political  wisdom 
and  skill.  The  great  festivals  were  tribal.  The  clan  is  recognized 
in  a  myth  that  describes  the  metamorphosis  of  a  turtle  into  a  man 
who  became  the  progenitor  of  the  clan  of  that  name,  and  it  was 
socially  influential  by  reason  of  the  brotherhood  that  existed  among 
members  of  clans  having  the  same  name  in  different  tribes,  and 
through  the  fact  that  a  man's  personal  name  was  the  property  of 
the  clan.  The  totem  figure  was  used  as  a  badge.  Whether  or  not 
the  totem  was  killed  and  eaten  is  not  known.  In  the  form,  then, 
in  which  it  is  known,  the  Iroquois  organization  cannot  be  called 
totemic  —  whether  it  was  originally  such  must  be  left  undetermined. 
490.  The  Cherokees,  belonging  to  the  southern  division  of  the 
Iroquois  stock  (living  formerly  in  Tennessee  and  North  Carolina), 
killed  the  animals  they  respected,  but  with  ceremonies.   Their  Green 

1  The  Iroquois  stock  occupied  an  immense  territory,  partly  in  Canada,  partly  in 
the  region  now  including  the  states  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Kentucky,  Tennes- 
see, Georgia,  Alabama,  and  the  Carolinas. 


TOTEMISM  AND    TABOO  203 

Corn  dance,  the  object  of  which  was  to  insure  a  good  crop,  was 
expiatory,  and  was  accompanied  by  a  general  amnesty.1 

491.  Wvandot  (Huron)  myths'2  account  for  their  Snake  and 
Hawk  clans  by  stories  of  marriages  between  women  and  a  snake 
or  a  hawk  ;  here  human  beings  are  assumed  to  have  existed  before 
the  genesis  of  the  clan  (a  difference  from  the  Australian  scheme), 
but  it  is  true  that  the  clan  is  held  to  have  descended  in  part  from 
an  animal. 

492.  In  the  great  Algonkin  stock3  the  evidence  for  a  distinct 
totemic  organization  is  similarly  indefinite.  The  Lenape'  (Dela- 
wares),  who  were  agricultural  and  well  advanced  in  manufacture, 
gave  prominence  to  families  rather  than  to  clans,  and  the  totem  was 
a  badge.  The  Ojibwas,  hunters  (dwelling  by  the  Great  Lakes  and 
in  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence),4  also  used  their  sacred  animal 
forms  as  badges ;  whether  they  ate  such  animals  or  claimed  descent 
from  them  we  are  not  informed.  The  friendly  relation  existing 
between  the  Otter  and  Beaver  clans  is  explained  by  a  story  of  a 
marriage  between  an  Otter  clansman  and  a  Beaver  woman.  For 
the  Potawatamies  it  was  lawful  to  kill  and  eat  the  totem.  The 
Ottawas  (of  Canada)  and  the  combined  Sauks  and  Foxes  (of  the 
Mississippi  Valley)  had  traditions  of  descent  from  the  totem.  The 
Menomini  (of  the  same  region)  would  kill  the  totem,  but  always 
with  an  apology  to  it ;  their  myths  embody  varying  conceptions  of 
the  relation  of  eponymous  animals  to  clans :  sometimes  the  origin 
of  a  clan  is  referred  to  the  action  of  a  supernatural  being  who 
changed  a  bear,  for  example,  into  a  man,  or  to  adventures  of 
animals ;  sometimes  eponymous  birds  (eagle  and  hawk)  are  de- 
scribed as  being  spirits  or  deities.  Such  introduction  of  super- 
natural beings  involves  a  deviation  from  the  conception  of  the 
eponymous  animal  as  independent  creator  of  a  clan.5 

1  Cf.  Gatschct,  Migration  Legend  of  the  Creeks,  p.  24  ff. 

2  The  Wyandots,  who  were  allied  to  the  Iroquois,  dwelt  in  the  district  north  of 
Lake  Ontario. 

3  The  Algonkins  formerly  ranged  over  a  large  territory  extending  along  the  Atlan- 
tic coast  as  far  south  as  North  Carolina  and  reaching  westward  to  the  Mississippi. 

4  It  was  from  the  Ojibwas  that  our  word  '  totem '  was  taken. 

5  A  similar  role,  somewhat  vague,  is  assigned  to  two  supernatural  beings  in  Aus- 
tralia (Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  3SS  ;  cf.  p.  246). 


204     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

493.  For  the  tribes  bordering  on  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  no  signs 
have  been  preserved  of  an  organization  based  on  the  relation 
between  clans  and  eponymous  animals,  plants,  and  other  objects. 
The  great  Maskoki  stock  (including  Creeks,  Seminoles,  Choctaws, 
Chickasas,  and  some  other  less  important  tribes)  had  a  well-formed 
political  system,  and  their  religion  was  represented  by  the  Chief 
Magician  or  Priest  (Medicine  Man).  They  performed  magical 
ceremonies  for  increase  of  food,  but  these  were  tribal,  and  the 
Creek  annual  fast  (puskita,  busk)  had  high  religious  and  ethical 
significance.1 

494.  The  Caddoan  group,  dwelling  formerly  west  of  the  Missis- 
sippi, in  Texas,  Louisiana,  and  Arkansas,  had  an  approach  to 
specific  totemism.  In  the  Caddo  tribe  clansmen  refrained  from 
killing  the  eponymous  animal;  but  all  members  of  the  tribe  re- 
frained from  killing  eagles  and  panthers.  Whether  this  custom 
represents  former  clan  restrictions  is  uncertain.  For  the  related 
Skidi  Pawnee  (who  formerly  dwelt  in  the  Nebraska  region)  there 
is  evidence,  from  folk-tales,  of  a  belief  in  the  origin  of  clans  from 
marriages  between  human  beings  and  animals,  and  of  belief  that 
through  such  marriages  benefits  accrued  to  the  people.  But  such 
beliefs  appear  not  to  have  affected  the  Pawnee  social  organization.2 

495.  The  Nakchi  (Natchez)  people  (of  the  lower  Mississippi 
Valley)  dwelt  in  villages  that  had  such  names  as  "  pond-lily  people," 
"  hickory  people,"  "  swan  people,"  "  forest  people."  These  are  pos- 
sibly survivals  of  totemic  names,  but  there  is  no  account  of  the 
existence  of  totemic  groups  among  them.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  had  a  highly  developed  sun-worship,  with  human  sacrifices. 

496.  Customs  in  the  Siouan  stock  vary.  In  the  Dakota  tribe 
there  is  no  known  evidence  of  totemism.    The  Omahas  (of  the 

1  Gatschet,  Migration  Legend  of  the  Creeks,  p.  177  ff.  It  was  expiatory,  and  was 
accompanied  by  a  moral  reconstruction  of  society,  a  new  beginning,  with  old  scores 
wiped  out.  Cf.  the  Cherokee  Green  Corn  dance  (see  article  "  Cherokees  "  in  Hastings, 
Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics). 

2  Dorsey,  The  Skidi  Pawnee,  p.  xviii.  The  Pawnee  had  a  fairly  well-developed 
pantheon,  and  a  civil  government  based  on  rank  (chiefs,  warriors,  priests,  magicians). 
They  lived  in  endogamous  villages  ;  in  every  village  there  was  a  sacred  bundle,  and 
all  the  people  of  the  village  were  considered  to  be  descendants  of  the  original  owner 
of  the  bundle. 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  205 

Missouri  Valley),  who  arc  partly  agriculturalists,  partly  hunters, 
refrain  from  eating  or  using  eponymous  objects,  certain  clans  are 
credited  with  magical  power  over  such  objects,  and  there  are  traces, 
in  ceremonies  and  myths,  of  the  descent  of  elans,  each  from  its 
eponym.  This  combination  of  more  definite  totemistic  conceptions 
is  not  found  in  any  other  member  of  the  Siouan  stock.  The  Osages 
had  a  tradition  or  myth  of  their  descent  from  animals,  but  their 
civil  organization  was  nontotemic  —  they  were  divided  into  two 
groups,  termed  respectively  the  Peace  Side  and  the  War  Side,  and 
the  members  of  the  former  group  took  no  animal  life,  though  they 
ate  flesh  that  they  obtained  from  the  War  Side.  The  origin  of  this 
custom  is  uncertain  —  the  two  divisions  of  the  tribe,  the  hunters 
and  the  tillers  of  the  soil,  exchanged  products,  but  how  this  division 
of  labor  arose  (whether  from  a  union  of  two  tribes  or  otherwise) 
is  not  clear.  Among  the  Hidatsa,  it  is  reported,  there  was  a  belief 
that  spirit  children  might  enter  into  a  woman  and  be  born  into  the 
world.  The  resemblance  to  the  Central  Australian  belief  is  striking, 
but  it  does  not  appear  that  such  entrance  of  spirit  children  was 
supposed  to  be  the  only  mode  of  human  birth.  The  Mandans  (liv- 
ing on  the  Missouri  River,  in  North  Dakota)  now  have  no  totemic 
system ;  but  little  or  nothing  is  known  of  their  early  history.1  In 
the  Siouan  tribes  the  figure  of  the  individual  animal  guardian  (the 
manitu  or  "  medicine  ")  plays  a  prominent  role. 

497.  There  are  indications  that  the  institutions  of  the  Pueblo 
tribes  (who  are  now  wholly  agricultural)  have  undergone  modifi- 
cations, perhaps  under  foreign  (Spanish)  influence.  Hopi  myths 
represent  clans  as  descended  from  ancestors  originally  animal,  and 
transformed  into  human  shape  by  deities.  But  the  elaborate  sun- 
worship  and  the  complicated  solstice  ceremonies  are  tribal.2  The 
Zuni  economic  ceremonies  appear  to  have  passed  from  under  clan 
control.  Thus,  the  magical  ceremony  for  procuring  rain,  properly 
the  function  of  the  Frog  clan,  is  now  in  the  hands  of  rain-priests ; 


1  Will  and  Spindcn,  The  Mandans  {Papers  of  the  Peabody  Museum  of  American 
Archceology  and  Ethnology,  Harvard  University,  vol.  iii,  1906),  p.  129  ff. 

2  J.  W.  Fewkes,  The  Winter  Solstice  Ceremony  at  Walpi  (reprint  from  The  Ameri- 
can Anthropologist,  vol.  xi,  1898),  with  bibliography. 


206     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

and  the  magical,  dramatic  performances  for  insuring  a  supply  of 
food  are  conducted  by  nontotemic  religious  fraternities.  The  great 
Snake  "dance"  may  have  been  originally  a  totemic  ceremony  in- 
tended to  secure  rain  and  corn.1 

498.  For  a  former  totemic  organization  among  the  Navahos, 
Apaches,  and  Mohaves  (these  last  live  on  the  Colorado  River) 
there  are  only  vague  traditions  and  other  faint  traces ;  the  taboos 
on  foods  now  touch  not  a  particular  clan  but  a  whole  tribe. 

499.  The  coast  tribes  of  Northwest  America  (in  British  Columbia 
and  the  United  States)  2  differ  in  social  organization  from  the  other 
Indians  in  several  respects,  and  particularly  in  the  importance  they 
attach  to  rank,  in  their  employment  of  the  crest  or  badge,  and  in 
the  prominence  they  give  to  the  individual  guardian  animal  or  spirit. 

500.  In  the  civil  organization  of  the  Carrier  division  of  the  Dene', 
the  Salish,  the  Kwakiutl,  and  other  tribes,  three  or  four  castes  or 
groups  are  recognized  :  hereditary  nobles  ;  the  middle  class,  whose 
position  is  based  on  property ;  and  the  common  folk ;  and  to  these 
is  to  be  added  among  some  tribes  the  class  of  slaves.  In  the 
summer  ceremonies  the  men  are  seated  according  to  class  and 
rank.  The  family  pride  of  the  nobles  is  great  —  every  family  has 
its  traditions  and  pedigrees.  In  such  a  scheme  the  zoonymous  clan 
plays  an  insignificant  part.  Classes  and  clans  are  mixed  in  the 
villages  in  which,  for  the  most  part,  these  people  live,  and  trade 
is  prominent  in  their  life.  The  curious  custom  of  the  "  potlatch  " 
—  a  man  invites  his  friends  and  neighbors  to  a  gathering  and 
makes  them  magnificent  presents,  his  reputation  being  great  in 
proportion  to  the  extent  of  his  gifts  —  appears  to  be  a  device  for 

1  Fewkes,  Journal  of  American  Ethnology  and  Archeology,  iv,  and  Journal  of 
American  Folklore,  iv. 

2  The  stocks  or  groups  are,  going  from  north  to  south  :  the  Dene  or  Athabascans 
(middle  of  Alaska  and  running  east  and  west)  ;  the  flingit  (Southern  Alaska)  ;  the 
Haidas  (Queen  Charlotte  Islands  and  adjacent  islands)  ;  the  Tsimshians  (valleys  of 
the  Nass  and  Skeena  rivers  and  adjacent  islands)  ;  the  Kwakiutl  (coast  of  British 
Columbia,  from  Gardiner  Channel  to  Cape  Mudge,  but  not  the  west  coast  of  Van- 
couver Island)  ;  the  Nootkas  (west  coast  of  Vancouver  Island)  ;  the  Salish  (eastern 
part  of  Vancouver  Island,  and  parts  of  British  Columbia,  Washington,  Idaho,  and 
Montana)  :  the  Kootenay  (near  Kootenay  Lake  and  adjoining  parts  of  the  United 
States).   See  the  authorities  cited  by  Frazer  in  Totemism  and  Exogamy. 


TOTEMISM  -AND   TABOO  207 

laying  up  property;   the  host  in  his  turn  receives  presents  from 
friends  and  neighbors. 

501.  The  employment  of  a  sacred  object  as  a  badge  or  crest,  a 
sign  of  tribal  or  clan  position,  is  found,  as  is  noted  above,1  in  various 
parts  of  the  world:  in  the  Torres  Straits  islands,  in  the  Am  archi- 
pelago (west  of  New  Guinea),  and  in  North  America  among  the 
Iroquois,  the  Lenape  (Delawares),  the  Pueblos,  and  perhaps  among 
the  Potawatamies.  In  these  tribes,  however,  the  role  of  the  badge 
is  relatively  unimportant  —  it  is  employed  for  decorative  purposes, 
but  does  not  enter  fundamentally  into  the  organization  of  the  clan 
or  the  tribe.  In  Northwest  America,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  of 
prime  significance  both  in  decoration  and  in  organization  —  it,  to 
a  great  extent,  takes  the  place  occupied  elsewhere  by  the  totem, 
and  it  is  not  always  identical  with  the  eponymous  object  of  the 
clan,  though  this  may  be  an  accidental  result  of  shifting  social 
relations  (new  combinations  of  clans,  or  a  borrowing  of  a  device 
from  a  neighbor). 

502.  The  crest.  The  origin  of  this  function  of  the  crest  and  its 
relation  to  the  function  of  the  totem  is  not  clear ;  it  may  have 
arisen  in  different  ways  in  different  places,  or  different  conceptions 
may  have  been  combined  in  the  same  place.  The  decorative  use 
is  an  independent  fact,  having  no  necessary  connection  with  clan 
organization  ;  the  demand  for  decoration  is  universal  among  savages, 
and  the  employment  of  sacred  objects  for  this  purpose  is  natural. 
Figures  of  such  objects  are  used,  however,  in  magical  procedures  — 
abundantly,  for  example,  in  Central  Australia  —  and  it  is  conceiv- 
able that  such  use  by  a  clan  may  have  converted  the  totemic  object 
into  a  symbol  or  device.  The  artistic  employment  of  figures  of 
sacred  objects  has  been  developed  on  the  American  Pacific  Coast 
to  a  remarkable  extent ;  the  great  poles  standing  in  front  of  houses 
or  erected  in  memory  of  the  dead  have  carved  on  them  histories 
of  the  relation  of  the  family  or  of  the  deceased  person  to  certain  ani- 
mals and  events.  These  so-called  totem  poles  presuppose,  it  is  true, 
reverence  for  the  sacred  symbol,  but  the  custom  may  possibly  have 
grown  simply  out  of  artistic  and  historical  (or  biographical)  motives. 

1  §445  f- 


208     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

503.  Perhaps,  however,  we  must  assume  or  include  another  line 
of  development.  The  crest  may  be  regarded  either  as  the  non- 
artistic  modification  or  degradation  of  an  original  true  totem  (due 
to  diminished  reverence  for  animals  and  other  causes),  or  as  an 
employment  of  sacred  objects  (for  purposes  of  organization)  that 
has  not  reached  the  proportions  of  totemism  proper.  Which  of 
these  views  will  seem  the  more  probable  will  depend  partly  on 
the  degree  of  importance  assigned  to  certain  traditions  and  folk- 
stories  of  the  Northwestern  tribes,  partly  on  one's  construction 
of  the  general  history  of  totemistic  observances.  In  so  obscure  a 
subject  a  definite  theory  can  hardly  be  maintained.  The  large 
number  of  stories  in  which  the  beginnings  of  clan  life  are  attrib- 
uted to  marriages  between  clansmen  and  eponymous  animals,  or 
to  beneficent  or  other  adventures  with  such  animals,  may  appear 
to  indicate  that  there  was  an  underlying  belief  in  the  descent  of 
clans  from  animals.  On  the  other  hand,  in  certain  low  tribes  (in 
New  Britain  and  the  Solomon  Islands  and  elsewhere)  the  feeling 
of  kinship  with  animals  is  said  to  exist  without  the  belief  that  they 
are  ancestors,  or  the  animal  is  regarded  as  the  representative  of  a 
human  ancestor  rather  than  as  itself  the  ancestor.  This  latter  view 
may  be  a  bit  of  euhemeristic  rationalism.1 

504.  While  guardian  spirits  (generally  in  animal  form)  are  found 
abundantly  in  America  and  elsewhere,2  their  role  in  the  tribes  of 
the  Pacific  Coast  appears  to  be  specially  important,  for  there  they 
largely  take  the  place  occupied  in  Central  Australia  by  the  clan 
totems.  They  are  not  wholly  lacking,  however,  in  Australia.  Among 
the  nontotemic  Kurnai  of  Southeast  Australia  there  are  animal 
patrons  of  the  sexes  and  of  shamans  and  other  individuals.  In  like 
manner  the  shamans  of  the  Pacific  Coast  Haidas  and  Tlingit  have 
their  guardians,  and  sometimes  secret  societies  are  similarly  pro- 
vided ;  in  the  winter  ceremonies  of  the  Kwakiutl  the  youth  is  sup- 
posed to  be  possessed  by  the  patron  of  the  society  to  which  he 

i  Cf.  the  divergent  native  accounts  of  the  Melanesian  buto  (Codrington,  The 
Melanesia/is,  p.  31  ff.). 

2  In  North  America,  in  the  Iroquois,  Algonkin,  Maskoki  (Creek),  and  Siouan 
stocks ;  in  Central  America  and  South  America ;  in  Borneo  and  East  Africa ;  and 
elsewhere. 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  209 

belongs.  We  thus  have,  apparently,  similar  and  mutually  inde- 
pendent developments  in  Australia  and  America  out  of  the  early 
relations  of  men  with  animals. 

505.  The  Eskimo  live  in  small  groups,  and  marriage  is  locally 
unrestricted.  There  is  the  usual  reverence  for  animals,  with  folk- 
stories' of  animal  creators  and  of  transformations,  but  no  well-de- 
fined marks  of  totemism,  and  no  recognition  of  individual  protecting 
animal-spirits. 

506.  In  the  Calif ornian  tribes,  which  are  among  the  least  de- 
veloped in  America,  no  traces  of  totemistic  organization  have  been 
found.1  The  people  live,  or  lived,  in  villages.  The  shamans,  who 
are  important  members  of  the  communities,  have  their  familiar 
spirits,  acquired  through  dreams  and  by  ascetic  observances ;  but 
these  belong  to  the  widespread  apparatus  of  magic,  and  differ  in 
their  social  function  from  guardian  spirits  proper. 

507.  There  are  no  definite  marks  of  totemism  in  Central  and 
Northeastern  Asia,  and  few  such  marks  in  Africa.  The  Siberian 
Koryaks  believe  in  a  reincarnation  of  deceased  human  beings  in 
animals,  but  their  social  organization  is  not  determined  by  this 
belief.  Certain  clans  of  the  Ainu  (inhabiting  the  northernmost 
islands  of  the  Japan  archipelago)  are  said  to  regard  as  ancestors 
the  animals  whose  names  they  bear,  but  this  belief  appears  to  be 
socially  unimportant.    Marriage  is  not  controlled  by  clan  relations. 

508.  Throughout  savage  Africa  sacred  animals,  plants,  and  other 
objects  play  a  great  part  in  life,  but  generally  without  assuming  a 
specifically  totemistic  role. 

509.  In  the  great  Bantu  family  the  usages  vary  greatly.2  One 
of  the  most  interesting  systems  is  that  of  the  Bakuana  (in  the  south). 
Here  the  eponymous  animal  approaches  divinity — not  only  is 
it  killed  with  regret,  it  is  a  thing  to  swear  by,  and  has  magical 
power ;  but  independence  of  the  totem  appears  in  the  fact  that  it 
may  be  changed ;  that  is,  it  is  a  friend  adopted  by  men  at  their 

1  R.  B.  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu  (Central  California),  p.  223  :  id.,  The  Shasta 
(Northern  California  and  Oregon),  p.  451  :  id.,  The  Chimariko  Indians  (west  of  the 
Shasta,  on  Trinity  River),  p.  301  ;  A.  L.  Kroeber,  article  "California"  in  Hastings, 
Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  Article  "  Bantu"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


2IO     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

convenience.  It  is  in  accord  with  this  conception  that  the  Bakuana 
(who  are  pastoral  and  agricultural)  have  clan  gods.  Beyond  taboos 
on  sacred  objects  there  is  nothing  in  the  Bantu  territory  that 
clearly  indicates  a  totemistic  organization  of  society. 

510.  In  the  half-civilized  and  higher  savage  communities  of  the 
eastern  and  western  parts  of  the  continent  totemism  proper,  if  it 
has  ever  been  predominant,  has  been  expelled  or  depressed  by 
higher  forms  of  organization.  It  seems  not  to  exist  among  the 
Masai,  a  vigorous  people  with  an  interesting  theistic  system.  The 
neighboring  Nandi,  who  have  clan  totems,  lay  stress  rather  on  the 
family  than  on  the  clan  in  their  marriage  laws,  and  their  taboos 
include  more  than  their  totems;  their  excessive  regard  for  the 
hyena  may  be  due  simply  to  their  fear  of  the  animal.1 

511.  The  half-civilized  Baganda  (of  the  British  Uganda  Protec- 
torate) refrain  from  injuring  clan  totems,  but  the  functions  of  the 
clans  are  now  political  and  religious  (relating,  for  example,  to  the 
building  of  temples)  under  the  control  of  a  quasi-royal  govern- 
ment;  there  is  almost  complete  absence  of  magical  ceremonies 
for  the  multiplication  or  control  of  sacred  objects.2  Old  marriage 
laws  are  relaxed  —  a  king  may  marry  his  sister  (as  in  ancient 
Egypt).  Free  dealing  with  totems  is  illustrated  by  the  adoption  of 
a  new  cooking-pot  as  totem  by  one  clan.  The  cult  of  the  python 
obtains  here,  as  in  West  Africa.  Among  the  neighboring  Banyoro, 
and  among  the  Bahima  (west  of  Victoria  Nyanza),  who  are  herds- 
men with  a  kingly  government,  there  is  the  usual  reverence  for 
animals,  but  eponymous  animals  are  not  important  for  the  social 
organization. 

512.  In  West  Africa  also  definite  totemistic  organization  has 
not  been  found.  Everywhere  there  is  reverence  for  the  epony- 
mous sacred  thing,  and,  when  it  is  edible,  refusal  to  eat  it ;  but  the 
taboos  are  sometimes,  as  in  Siena  (which  is  agricultural),  more  ex- 
tensive than   the  list  of    sacred  things.     In  Southern  Nigeria  at 


1  Hollis,  The  Masai,  Index,  and  The  Nandi,  p.  5  f. 

2  A  hint  of  an  earlier  usage  is  given  in  a  legend  which  relates  that  totemic  clans 
were  ordained  by  a  king  to  the  end  that  certain  sorts  of  food  might  be  taboo  to  cer- 
tain families,  and  thus  animals  might  have  a  better  chance  to  multiply. 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  21 1 

funerals  (and  sometimes  on  other  occasions)  the  totem  animal  or 
plant  is  offered,  in  the  form  of  soup,  to  the  dead ;  the  animal  or 
plant  in  such  cases  is  regarded,  apparently,  simply  or  mainly  as 
acceptable  food  for  ghosts  —  the  offering  is  a  part  of  ancestor- 
worship.  In  Congo  families  have  sacred  animals  (as  in  Samoa) 
which  they  abstain  from  eating.  Here  and  there  occurs  belief  in 
the  reincarnation  of  deceased  human  beings  in  animals.  A  negro 
fetish,  becoming  intimately  associated  with  a  clan,  sometimes  re- 
sembles a  totem.  The  half-civilized  Ashanti,  Dahomi,  and  Yoruba 
have  elaborate  theistic  systems,  with  monarchical  governments 
that  leave  no  place  for  a  totemistic  organization.1 

513.  Madagascar,  before  it  came  under  European  control,  had 
a  well-defined  religious  and  political  hierarchy.2  Along  with  its 
very  elaborate  tabooism  the  island  has  beliefs  concerning  animals 
that  are  found  in  totemic  systems  but  do  not  take  the  form  of 
totemism  proper.  The  animal  is  regarded  as  an  ancestor  or  a  patron, 
but  clans  do  not  take  their  names  from  animals,  there  is.no  general 
rule  of  exogamy,  and  there  is  no  word  corresponding  exactly  to 
the  word  'totem.'  The  question  arises  whether  the  Malagasy  sys- 
tem is  a  stage  antecedent  to  totemism  proper  or  an  attenuated 
survival  of  it.3 

514.  Alleged  survivals  of  totemism  among  civilized  peoples. 
Though  totemism,  as  a  system  of  social  organization,  is  not  recog- 
nizable in  any  civilized  community,  ancient  or  modern,  it  is  held 
by  some  scholars  that  the  fragments  or  hints  of  such  a  system 
that  are  certified  bear  witness  to  its  former  existence  in  these 
communities.4 

1  See  the  volumes  of  A.  B.  Ellis  on  these  countries  (chapters  on  «  Gods  "  and  on 
,f  Government ").         2  A.  van  Gennep,  Tabou  et  totemisme  h  Madagascar,  p.  3 14. 

3  On  this  point  see  below,  §  522  ff. 

4  For  the  details  see  W.  R.  Smith,  Kinship  and  Mania-,  in  Early  Arabia  (in- 
cludes the  Hebrews)  ;  Joseph  Jacobs,  "Are  there  Totem-clans  in  the  Old  Testament  ?  " 
(in  Archaeological  Review,  vol.  Hi)  ;  A.  Lang,  'Custom  and  Myth  (on  the  Greek  . 

and  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  i,  266  ff.  ;  ii,  226  ;  S.  Reinach,  t  ultes,  mythes  et  reli- 
gions (Greek  and  Celtic)  ;  Gardner  and  Jevons,  Greek  Antiquities,  p.  68  ff.,  etc. : 
Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  p.  84  f. ;  G.  L.  Gomme,  «  Totemism  in  Britain  »  (in  Areliu- 
ological  Review,  vol.  iii)  ;  N.  W.  Thomas,  «  La  survivance  du  culte  totemique  des 
animaux  et  les  rites  agraires  dans  le  pays  de  Galles"  (in  Revue  de  Vhistoire  des 
religions,  vol.  xxxviii). 


212     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

515.  In  fact  certain  ideas  and  customs  that  occur  in  connection 
with  savage  totemism  are  found  abundantly  among  ancient  Semites, 
Greeks  and  Romans,  and  in  Celtic  and  Teutonic  lands.  They  are 
such  as  the  following :  a  tribe  or  clan  bears  an  animal  name,  and 
regards  itself  as  akin  to  the  animal  in  question  and  as  descended 
from  it;  this  animal  is  sacred,  not  to  be  killed  or  eaten  (except 
ceremonially),  and,  when  it  dies,  is  to  be  buried  solemnly ;  sacred 
animals  aid  men  by  furnishing  omens,  or  even  by  protecting  from 
harm;  they  are  sacrificed  on  critical  occasions  (sometimes  once 
every  year),  and  in  some  cases  the  killing  of  the  sacrificial  animal 
is  treated  as  a  crime  ;  animal-gods  are  worshiped,  and  gods  are 
thought  to  be  incarnate  in  animals  ;  men  change  into  animals  and 
animals  into  men  ;  certain  animals  are  sacred  to  certain  deities ; 
human  worshipers  dress  in  imitation  of  animal  forms  (by  wear- 
ing skins  of  beasts  and  by  other  devices) ;  a  man's  tribal  mark  is 
derived  from  the  form  of  an  animal ;  the  death  of  the  sacrificial 
animal  comes  to  be  regarded  as  the  death  of  a  god  ;  the  form  of 
social  organization  in  certain  ancient  communities  is  similar  to  that 
with  which  totemism  is  usually  found  associated. 

516.  Not  all  of  these  points  are  found  in  any  one  case,  but  their 
occurrence  over  so  wide  an  area,  it  is  argued,  is  most  naturally 
explicable  by  the  assumption  of  an  original  totemism  of  which 
these  are  the  survivals.  It  is  suggested  also  that  they  may  be  an 
inheritance  from  savage  predecessors  of  the  civilized  peoples. 

517.  It  will  be  sufficient  to  mention  a  few  examples  of  the  beliefs 
and  usages  that  appear  to  point  to  an  original  totemism.1  Names 
of  clans  and  tribes  derived  from  animals  or  plants  are  not  uncom- 
mon:  Hebrew  Rahel  (Rachel,  ewe),  perhaps  Kaleb  (dog)  and 
Yael  (Jael,  mountain  goat);2  Greek  Kunnadai  (dog),  and  perhaps 
Myrmidon  (ant) ;  Roman  Porcius  (hog),  Fabius  (bean) ;  Irish 
Coneely  (seal);  Teutonic  clan-names  like  Wolfing  and  the  like. 
Belief  in  a  general  kinship  of  men  and  animals  existed  among 
Semites,  Greeks,  and  Romans.  On  the  other  hand,  belief  in  the 
descent  of  a  clan  from  an  animal  rarely  appears :  it  is  apparently 

1  Names  are  omitted  that  appear  to  belong  only  to  individuals  or  to  places. 

2  G.  B.  Gray,  Hebrew  Proper  Names,  p.  86  ff. 


TOTEM  ISM  AND  TABOO 


-^o 


not  found  in  the  Semitic  area  ;  the  Ophiogcncis  of  Parium  (in  Asia 
Minor)  are  said  to  have  regarded  themselves  as  akin  to  snakes  and  to 
have  traced  their  genos  (family  or  clan)  to  a  hero  who  was  at  first 
a  snake;1  the  Myrmidons,  according  to  one  tradition,  were  trans- 
formed ants,  and  some  of  the  Irish  Coneely  clan  are  said  to  have 
been  changed  into  seals.  Transformations  of  men  into  animals  are 
common  in  Greek  mythology.  Taboos  of  certain  foods  were  ob- 
served abundantly  in  the  ancient  world:  by  Egyptians,2  Hebrews.'' 
Greeks,4  and  Romans,5  and  by  Celts.6  Among  the  various  omen- 
giving  animals  some  may  have  been  totems.  Solemn  annual  sacri- 
fices, followed  by  mourning  for  the  victims,  were  performed  in 
Egypt,7  and  the  slaying  of  the  sacrificial  animal  was  treated  as 
murder  in  various  Greek  cities.8  Living  animals  were  worshiped  in 
Egypt,  and  everywhere  in  antiquity  gods  assumed  animal  forms,  and 
certain  animals  were  sacred  to  certain  gods.  Worshipers  clothed 
themselves  in  the  skins  of  sacrificed  animals  in  Egypt,  Cyprus,  and 
Rome.9  Tribal  marks  and  ensigns  were  sometimes  derived  from 
figures  of  animals.10  Finally,  there  are  traces,  in  the  early  history 
of  the  ancient  civilized  peoples,  of  the  form  of  social  organization 
with  which  savage  totemism  is  found  associated.11 

518.  It  is  possible  that  such  facts  as  these  may  point  to  a 
primitive  totemistic  stage  of  ancient  civilized  society.  But  it  is  to 
be  noted  that  the  usages  in  question  almost  all  relate  to  the  general 
sacredness  of  animals  (or  of  plants),  not  to  their  specific  character 
as  totems.  They  occur  in  lower  tribes  in  cases  where  totemism  does 
not  exist.12    Animal  clan-names  and  tribe-names,  belief  in  kinship 

1  Strabo,  Gcographica,  xiii,  58S. 

2  Herodotus,  ii,  3; ',  42  ;  Diodorus  Siculus,  Bibliotheke  Historikc,  i,  70. 

3  Lev.  xi ;  Deut.  xiv. 

4  Stengel  and  Oehmichen,  Die  griechischen  Sakralaltertiimer,  p.  27. 

5  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  i,  241  f.         «  Caesar,  Dc  Bello  Gallieo,  v,  12. 
"  Herodotus,  ii,  42. 

8  Pausanias,  i,  24,  4.    On  the  death  of  the  god  cf.  Frazer,  The  Dying  God. 

9  Herodotus,  ii,  39  ff . ;  W.  K.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  additional 
note  G  ;  the  Roman  Lupercalia. 

i'1  Diodorus  Siculus,  i,  86  (Egypt)  ;  cf.  Pliny,  Historia  Natura/is,  x,  4  f. 

11  W.  R.  Smith,  Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  .  Irahia,  chap,  viii  (Semites). 

12  See  above,  §§  441  ff.,  466,  and  below,  §  526;  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy, 
Index,  s.vv.  Animals  and  Totems. 


214     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

with  animals  and  plants  and  in  descent  from  them,  exogamy, 
transformations,  refusal  to  eat  certain  animals  except  ceremonially, 
apologies  for  killing  them,  omens  derived  from  them,  worship  of 
animal-gods,  incarnations  of  gods  in  animals,  animals  sacred  to 
crods,  tribal  marks  derived  from  animals  —  all  these  are  found  in 
such  diverse  social  combinations  that  it  is  impossible  to  infer  merely 
from  the  occurrence  of  this  or  that  custom  the  existence  of  the 
peculiar  form  of  social  organization  to  which  the  name  '  totemism ' 
proper  is  given  above.  The  same  remark  holds  of  inferences  from 
the  general  constitution  of  early  society ;  a  custom  of  matrilineal 
descent,  for  example,  by  no  means  carries  totemism  with  it. 

519.  The  evidence  for  the  existence  of  totemism  among  the  an- 
cient civilized  peoples,  consisting,  as  it  does,  of  detached  statements  of 
customs  that  are  found  elsewhere  without  totemism,  is  not  decisive. 
Animal-worship  has  played  a  great  role  in  religious  history,  but  the 
special  part  assigned  to  totemism  has  often  been  exaggerated.  It  has 
been  held  that  the  latter  is  at  the  base  of  all  beliefs  in  the  sacredness 
of  animals  and  plants,  or  that  certain  usages  (such  as  those  men- 
tioned above)  are  inexplicable  except  on  the  supposition  of  an  origi- 
nal totemism.  These  positions  are  not  justified  by  known  facts,  and 
it  will  conduce  to  clearness  to  give  totemism  its  distinct  place  in  that 
general  regard  for  animals  and  plants  of  which  it  is  a  peculiar  part. 

520.  Totemistic  forms  of  society,  as  far  as  our  present  knowl- 
edge goes,  are  found  only  among  the  lower  peoples,  and  among 
these  a  perplexing  variety  of  conditions  exists.  As  our  review  of 
what  may  be  called  totemistic  features  shows,1  the  one  permanent 
element  in  the  relation  between  men  and  nonhuman,  nondivine 
objects  is  reverence  for  these  last  on  men's  part ;  and  the  con- 
ception of  an  alliance,  defensive  and  offensive,  between  the  two 
groups  has  been  proposed  above  as  an  additional  differentia  of 
totemism,  a  sense  of  kinship  being  involved.  If  we  further  add  the 
condition  that  the  social  organization  (not  necessarily  exogamous) 
must  be  determined  by  this  alliance,  we  have  all  that  can  safely  be 
demanded  in  a  definition  of  totemism  ;  but  as  much  as  this  seems 
necessary  if  totemism  is  to  be  marked  off  as  a  definite  institution. 

1  See  above,  §443  ff. 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  215 

521.  From  the  point  of  view  of  religious  history  the  important 
thing  in  any  social  organization  is  its  character  as  framework  for 
religious  ideas  and  customs.  If  the  central  social  fact  is  an  intimate 
relation  between  a  human  group  and  a  nonhuman  class  of  natural 
objects,  then  conceptions  regarding  this  relation  may  gather  about 
it,  and  these  will  be  as  various  as  the  tribes  of  men.  The  elements 
of  social  and  religious  institutions  spring  from  the  universal  human 
nature  and  attach  themselves  to  any  form  of  life  that  may  have 
been  suggested  by  circumstances.  Thus  the  term  'totemism'  may 
be  used  loosely  to  denote  any  combination  of  customs  connected 
with  the  idea  of  an  alliance  between  man  and  other  things,  and 
the  alliance  itself  may  exist  in  various  degrees  of  intimacy.  The 
restricted  definition  suggested  above  is  in  part  arbitrary,  but  it 
may  serve  as  a  working  hypothesis  and  as  a  norm  by  which  to 
estimate  and  define  the  various  systems  or  cults  involving  a  rela- 
tion between  human  groups  and  individuals  on  the  one  side  and 
nonhuman  things  on  the  other  side. 

522.  Conditions  favorable  and  unfavorable  to  totemistic  organi- 
zation. The  questions  whether  totemism  was  the  earliest  form  of 
human  social  life  and  whether  existing  freer  forms  are  developments 
out  of  definite  totemism  may  be  left  undetermined.  Data  for  the 
construction  of  primitive  life  are  not  accessible,  and  how  far  decay 
or  decadence  of  institutions  is  to  be  recognized  must  be  determined 
in  every  case  from  such  considerations  as  are  offered  by  the  cir- 
cumstances. We  may,  however,  distinguish  between  social  condi- 
tions in  connection  with  which  some  sort  of  totemism  flourishes  and 
those  under  which  it  is  nonexistent  or  feeble ;  we  may  thus  note 
unfavorable  and,  by  contrast,  favorable  general  accompaniments. 
These  may  be  roughly  described  as  economic,  individualistic,  polit- 
ical, and  religious. 

523.  Economic  conditions.  Of  savage  and  slightly  civilized  tribes 
.some  live  by  hunting  or  fishing,  some  are  pastoral  (nomadic  or 

settled),  some  practice  agriculture.  Without  undertaking  to  trace 
minutely  the  history  of  these  economic  practices  it  may  be  assumed 
that  they  are  fixed  in  general  by  climatic  and  topographical  con- 
ditions.   Where  food  is  plentiful,  thought  and  life  are  likely  to  be 


2l6     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

freer.  In  general,  savage  peoples  are  constantly  on  the  alert  to 
discover  supplies  of  food,  and  they  show  ingenuity  in  devising  eco- 
nomic methods  —  when  one  resource  fails  they  look  for  another. 
Hunters  and  fishers  are  dependent  on  wild  animals  for  food,  and 
stand  in  awe  of  them.  The  domestication  of  animals  leads  men  to 
regard  them  simply  as  material  for  the  maintenance  of  life  —  the 
mystery  that  once  attached  to  them  vanishes  ;  they  are  considered 
not  as  man's  equals  or  superiors  but  as  his  servants.  The  same  re- 
sult follows  when  they  are  used  as  aids  m  tilling  the  soil  or  in  trans- 
portation. Agricultural  peoples  also  have  generally  some  knowledge 
of  the  arts  of  life  and  a  somewhat  settled  civil  and  political  organi- 
zation, and  these  tend  to  separate  them  from  the  lower  animals  and 
to  diminish  or  destroy  their  sense  of  kinship  with  them. 

524.  We  find,  in  fact,  that  in  many  cases  totemic  regulations  are 
less  strict  where  the  food  supply  is  plentiful  and  where  agriculture 
is  practiced.  The  correspondence  is  not  exact  —  other  considera- 
tions come  in,  such  as  isolation  and  the  unknown  quantity  of  natural 
tribal  endowments ;  but  the  relation  between  the  economic  and 
totemic  conditions  is  so  widespread  that  it  cannot  be  considered 
as  accidental. 

525.  Thus,  for  example,  the  contrast  between  the  social  system 
of  sterile  Central  Australia  and  that  of  certain  tribes  on  the  compar- 
atively fertile  southeast  coast  is  marked  ;  the  Kurnai  have  practically 
no  clan  totemism.  In  the  islands  of  Torres  Straits  and  in  New 
Guinea  agriculture  marks  a  dividing  line  between  stricter  and 
looser  organizations  based  on  regard  for  the  totem.  The  agricultural 
Melanesian  and  Polynesian  tribes,  with  great  regard  for  animal 
patrons,  lay  stress  on  the  family  or  on  voluntary  associations  rather 
than  on  the  clan.  In  Africa  the  partially  civilized  peoples,  such  as 
the  Baganda  and  adjacent  tribes  in  the  east,  and  Yoruba,  Dahomi, 
and  Ashanti  in  the  west,  have  fairly  well-developed  religious  organi- 
zations, in  which  totems  play  a  subordinate  part.  The  customs  of 
certain  tribes  in  the  south  are  especially  worthy  of  note :  the  pas- 
toral Herrero  have  a  double  system  of  clans,  maternal  and  paternal, 
and  their  food  restrictions  are  curiously  minute,  relating  to  parts 
of  animals  or  to  their  color ;  the  Bakuana,  who  are  pastoral  and 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  2  1 7 

agricultural,  kill  the  clan  eponymous  animals,  though  unwillingly, 
and  appear  not  to  regard  them  as  ancestors.  The  non-Aryan  tribes 
of  India  have  been  so  long  in  contact  with  Aryan  civilization  that 
in  many  cases,  as  it  seems,  their  original  customs  have  been  ob- 
scured, but  at  present  among  such  agricultural  tribes  as  the  Hos, 
the  Santhals,  and  the  Khonds  of  Bengal,  and  some  others,  totemic 
organizations  are  not  prominent,  and  the  Todas,  with  their  buffalo- 
cult,  show  no  signs  of  totem  ism. 

526.  In  North  America  the  variety  of  climatic  and  other  eco- 
nomic conditions  might  lead  us  to  expect  clear  testimony  as  to  the 
relation  between  these  conditions  and  totemic  development ;  but 
the  value  of  such  testimony  is  impaired  by  the  absence  of  in- 
formation concerning  early  forms  of  organization.  In  the  period 
for  which  there  are  details  it  appears  that  in  the  Eastern  groups 
(Iroquois,  Algonkin,  Creek,  Natchez,  Siouan,  Pueblo)  the  effective 
role  of  totemism  is  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  development  of 
agriculture  and  to  stable  civil  organization :  there  are  clans  bearing 
the  names  of  animals  and  other  objects,  with  mythical  stories  of 
descent  from  such  objects,  and  rules  of  exogamy,  but  the  civil, 
political,  and  religious  life  is  largely  independent  of  these  con- 
ditions ;  there  are  great  confederations  of  tribes  with  well-devised 
systems  of  government  that  look  to  the  well-being  of  the  whole 
community,  the  clan-division  being  of  small  importance.  The  mode 
of  life  appears  to  be  determined  or  greatly  influenced  by  climate, 
though  different  climatic  situations  sometimes  lead  to  similar  re- 
sults :  agriculture  naturally  arises  from  fertility  of  soil,  but  the 
Pueblo  tribes  have  been  driven  (perhaps  under  civilized  influ- 
ences), by  the  aridness  of  their  land,  to  till  the  soil.  Throughout 
the  East  the  known  facts  suggest  that  a  nontotemic  organization 
has  followed  an  earlier  form  in  which  quasi-totemic  elements  are 
recognizable. 

527.  The  interesting  social  organization  of  the  Northern  Pacific 
Coast,  on  the  other  hand,  appears  to  be  independent  of  agriculture. 
The  people  live  by  hunting  and  fishing ;  families  and  villages  are 
the  important  social  units ;  instead  of  totems  there  are  crests  or 
badges ;  society  in  some  tribes  is  marked  by  a  division  into  classes 


218     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

differing  in  social  rank.  The  history  of  all  these  tribes,  however,  is 
obscure :  there  have  been  modifications  of  organization  through 
the  influence  of  some  tribes  on  others ;  the  details  of  the  various 
social  schemes  are  not  all  accurately  known.  The  settled  village 
life  and  the  half-commercial,  half-aristocratic  constitution  of  society 
must  be  referred  to  racial  characteristics  and  other  conditions  with 
which  we  are  not  acquainted.  As  in  the  East,  so  here  there  is  the 
suggestion  of  a  movement  away  from  a  form  of  organization  that 
resembles  true  totemism.  The  Northwest  has  a  remarkable  system 
of  ceremonies,  but  in  definiteness  and  elevation  of  religious  con- 
ceptions it  is  greatly  inferior  to  the  East. 

528.  The  fact  that  some  of  the  least-advanced  American  tribes, 
particularly  the  Eskimo  and  the  California  tribes,  show  no  signs 
of  totemistic  organization  1  makes  against  the  view  that  totemism 
was  the  initial  form  of  human  society,  but  its  historical  background 
is  not  known.  In  any  case  it  does  not  invalidate  wrhat  is  said  above 
of  the  role  of  agriculture  in  the  modification  of  savage  institutions. 
The  lines  of  savage  growth  have  been  various  —  a  general  law  of 
development  cannot  be  laid  down  ;  the  history  of  every  community 
must  be  studied  for  itself,  and  its  testimony  must  be  given  its 
appropriate  value.  In  this  way  it  will  be  possible  to  give  a  sketch 
of  totemistic  forms  and  suggestions,  if  not  a  history  of  totemism. 

529.  Individualistic  institutions.  The  development  of  individ- 
ualism, a  universal  accompaniment  of  general  social  progress,  is 
unfavorable  to  totemism,  since  in  this  latter  the  individual  is  subor- 
dinated to  the  clan.  To  assert  one's  self  as  an  individual  is  prac- 
tically to  ignore  the  totem,  whose  function  pertains  to  the  clan  as  a 
whole,  without  separate  recognition  of  its  members.  Revolt  against 
the  supremacy  of  the  clan  (if  that  expression  is  allowable)  has  shown 
itself  from  an  early  social  stage  and  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  The 
principal  forms  in  which  it  appears  are  the  institution  of  voluntary 
societies,  and  the  adoption  of  personal  guardians  by  individuals. 

530.  Secret  societks.  It  is  a  common  custom  in  the  lower  tribes 
to  keep  the  sexes  separate  and  to  distinguish  between  the  initiated 

1  So,  also,  in  Northeastern  Asia,  in  the  Japan  archipelago  (the  Ainu),  and  in  low 
African  tribes. 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  219 

and  the  uninitiated.  There  are  often  men's  houses  in  which  the 
young  unmarried  males  are  required  to  live.1  .  Women  and  boys 
are  forbidden  to  be  present  at  ceremonies  of  initiation  when,  as 
in  some  instances,  the  secrets  of  the  tribe  are  involved.  Thus  there 
arise  frequently  secret  associations  of  males,  who  conduct  tribal 
affairs.  But  these  associations  are  not  voluntary  —  all  initiated  men 
belong  to  them  perforce  —  and  they  are  not  divorced  from  totemic 
relations.  The  real  voluntary  society  is  of  a  quite  different  character. 
In  general,  in  its  most  developed  form,  it  ignores  differences  of  age, 
sex,  and  clan.  There  are,  however,  diversities  in  the  constitution 
of  the  various  organizations  that  may  be  called  voluntary ; 2  con- 
ditions of  membership  and  functions  vary. 

531.  Such  organizations  are  of  two  sorts,  one  mainly  political 
or  governmental,  the  other  mainly  religious.  The  best  examples 
of  the  first  sort  are  found  in  Melanesia,  Polynesia,  and  West  Africa. 
The  clan  government  by  the  old  men,  of  which  a  simple  form  exists 
in  Central  Australia,  has  passed  into,  or  is  represented  by,  a  society 
of  men  that  undertakes  to  maintain  order,  exact  contributions,  and 
provide  amusements  for  the  people.  The  Dukduk  of  the  Bismarck 
Archipelago,3  the  Egbo  of  Old  Calabar,  and  the  Ogboni  of  Yoruba,4 
to  take  prominent  examples,  are  police  associations  that  have  man- 
aged to  get  complete  control  of  their  respective  communities  and 
have  naturally  become  instruments  of  oppression  and  fraud.  They 
have  elaborate  ceremonies  of  initiation,  are  terrible  to  women  and 
uninitiated  males,  and  religion  usually  enters  only  casually  and  sub- 
ordinately  into  their  activities,  chiefly  in  the  form  of  magical  cere- 
monies. A  partial  exception,  in  regard  to  this  last  point,  occurs  in  the 
case  of  the  Areoi  society  of  Tahiti,  which,  as  it  is  the  best-organized 
society  in  Polynesia,  is  also  the  most  tyrannical,  and  the  broadest  in 
its  scope ;  its  members  enjoy  not  only  a  large  share  of  the  good  things 
of  this  life,  but  also  the  most  desirable  positions  in  the  future  life.5 

1  Where  sexual  license  before  marriage  prevails,  young  girls  are  allowed  to  go  to 
these  houses.  -II.  Webster,  Primitive  Secret  Societies. 

3  G.  Brown,  Melanesians  and  Polynesians,  p.  60  ff. 

4  Mar)'  Kingsley,  West  African  Studies,  p.  ^4,  and  Travels  in  West  Africa, 
p.  532  ff. ;  Ellis,  Yoruba^  p.  110. 

5  H.  Webster,  Primitive  Secret  Societies,  p.  164  ff. 


220     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

532.  On  the  other  hand,  the  North  American  voluntary  societies 
are  mainly  concerned  with  the  presentation  of  religious  ideas  by 
the  dramatization  of  myths,  and  by  demanding  for  membership 
some  sort  of  religious  experience.  How  far  such  societies  existed 
in  the  Eastern  tribes  it  is  not  possible  to  say.  Among  these  tribes, 
as  among  the  Skidi  Pawnee,  the  Navahos,  and  other  groups  of  the 
Middle  West,  the  control  of  religion  has  largely  passed  into  the  hands 
of  priests  —  an  advance  in  religious  organization.  Where  ceremonies 
arc  conducted  by  societies,  membership  in  these  is  often  conditioned 
on  the  adoption  of  a  personal  divine  patron  by  every  member. 

533.  This  adoption  of  a  guardian  spirit  by  the  individual  is  the 
most  definite  early  divergence  from  the  totemistic  clan  organization. 
An  intermediate  stage  is  represented  by  the  sex-patrons  of  South- 
east Australia,1  who  embody  a  declaration  of  independence  by  the 
women.  In  this  region,  moreover,  among  the  Kurnai,  not  only 
shamans  but  all  other  men  have  each  his  special  "brother"  and  pro- 
tector.'2 Naturally,  where  the  family,  in  distinction  from  the  clan, 
is  the  social  unit,  family  protectors  arise.  The  Koryaks  of  North- 
eastern Asia  have  a  guardian  spirit  for  every  family  and  also  for 
every  person.3  A  curious  feature  of  Dahomi  religion  is  the  impor- 
tance that  is  attached  to  the  family  ghost  as  protector,  the  ghost, 
that  is,  of  a  former  member  of  the  family,  ordinarily  its  head  ;  he 
has  a  shrine,  and  becomes  practically  an  inferior  deity.  Still  more 
remarkable  is  the  worship  that  the  West  African  native,  both  on  the 
Gold  Coast  and  on  the  Slave  Coast  (communities  with  well-developed 
systems  of  royal  government),  offers  to  his  own  indwelling  spirit ; 4 
the  man's  birthday  is  sacred  to  the  spirit  and  is  commenced  with 
a  sacrifice.5  In  Samoa  a  guardian  spirit  (conceived  of  as  incarnate 
in  some  animal)  is  selected  for  a  child  at  its  birth.6  Some  such 
custom  is  said  to  exist  among  the  Eskimo  of  the  Yukon  district 

1  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  i,  495  IT. 

2  Frazer,  loc.  cit.    Cf.  A.  Lang,  Secret  of  the  Totem,  p.  138. 

3  Jesup  North  Pacific  Expedition,  vi,  1,  32  ff.,  43  ff. 

4  So  worship  was  offered  to  the  Roman  genius  (Horace,  Carm.  iii,  17;  Epist. 
i,  7,  94).  5  A.  B.  Ellis,  Elbe  ,  p.  105  ;   Tshi,  p.  156  ;    Yoruba,  chap.  vii. 

6  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  78  f.  So  the  Kovporpbcpos  (Farnell,  in  Anthropological  Essays 
presented  to  E.  B.  Tylor) . 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  221 

in  Alaska ;  a  guardian  animal  is  selected  by  a  boy  when  he  arrives 
at  the  age  of  puberty,  or  it  is  selected  for  him  in  his  early  child- 
hood by  his  parents.1 

534.  While  these  examples  indicate  a  tendency  toward  the  adop- 
tion of  individual  patrons,  and  may  suggest  that  the  custom  is,  or 
was,  more  widespread  than  now  appears,  it  is  among  the  North 
American  Redmen  that  this  sort  of  individualism  is  best  developed 
and  most  effective  socially  and  religiously.2  There  are  traces  of  it 
in  the  Eastern  tribes ;  but  it  is  in  its  Western  form  that  it  is  best 
known  —  it  is  explicit  among  the  Western  Algonkins  and  the  Siouan 
tribes,  and  on  the  Northwest  Pacific  Coast.  Most  men,  though  not 
all,  seek  and  obtain  a  guardian  spirit  (usually  represented  by  an 
animal)  which  shall  protect  from  injury  and  bestow  prowess  in 
war,  success  in  love,  and  all  other  goods  of  life.  The  spirit  is,  as 
a  rule,  independent  of  the  clan  totem  —  is  found,  indeed,  in  non- 
totemic  tribes ;  it  is  often  identical  with  the  eponymous  animal  of 
some  religious  society.  It  is  sometimes  inherited,  but  rarely  —  the 
essence  of  the  institution  is  that  the  guardian  shall  be  sought  and 
found.  The  preparation  for  the  quest  is  by  fasting ;  the  revelation 
of  the  guardian  comes  in  a  dream  or  a  vision,  or  by  some  strong 
impression  made  otherwise  on  the  mind. 

535.  Among  the  Siouan  Indians  there  are  religious  societies, 
each  of  which  bears  the  name  of  some  animal  and  has  a  ritual 
composed  of  chants  and  songs  which,  it  is  often  claimed,  have 
been  received  in  a  supernatural  manner.3  The  youth  who  aspires 
to  become  a  member  of  one  of  these  societies  goes  off  alone  to  the 
forest,  and  there,  fasting  and  meditating,  waits  for  the  vision  of 
the  sign.  This  comes  usually  in  the  form  of  an  animal,  and  the 
youth  enters  the  society  whose  distinguishing  mark  this  animal  is. 
First,  however,  he  must  travel  until  he  meets  the  animal  he  saw, 
when  he  must  slay  it  and  preserve  the  whole  or  a  part  of  it.    This 

1  W.  H.  Dall,  Alaska  and  its  Resources,  p.  145,  cited  by  Frazer,  Totemism  and 
Exogamy,  iii,  442  f. 

2  The  acquisition  of  a  supernatural  inspirer  by  a  shaman  is  analogous  to  this  cus- 
tom, but  belongs  in  a  somewhat  different  category ;  see  below,  §  540. 

3  Miss  Alice  Fletcher,  "Indian  Ceremonies"  (in  Report  of  the  Peabody  Mu- 
seum of  American  Archaeology  and  Ethnology,  Harvard  University,  18S3). 


222     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

trophy  is  the  sign  of  his  vision  and  is  the  most  sacred  thing  he  can 
possess,  marking  as  it  does  his  personal  relation  to  the  supernatural 
being  who  has  appeared  to  him. 

536.  A  similar  ceremony  is  found  among  the  Kwakiutl  in  North- 
western America.1  The  novice  is  supposed  to  stay  some  time  with 
the  supernatural  being  who  is  the  protector  of  his  society.  From  this 
interview  he  returns  in  a  state  of  ecstasy,  and  is  brought  to  a  nor- 
mal state  by  the  songs  and  dances  and  magical  performances  of 
the  shaman  ;  but  before  he  is  permitted  to  take  part  in  the  ordinary 
pursuits  of  life  he  must  undergo  a  ceremonial  purification.  In  these 
tribes,  as  is  remarked  above,  the  totemic  groups  have  been  replaced 
by  clans,  and  in  the  winter  ceremonial  these  clans  (according  to  one 
report)  are  again  replaced  by  the  secret  societies,  whose  function 
is  political  only  in  the  sense  that  its  members  form  a  part  of  the 
aristocracy.  Recently  societies  of  women  have  been  established  — 
a  fact  that  illustrates  the  divergence  of  the  new  system  from  the  old. 

537.  The  details  of  initiation  or  of  acquisition  of  the  guardian 
spirit  vary  (for  example,  it  is  not  always  required  that  the  youth 
kill  his  patron  animal),  but  in  all  cases  there  is  recognition  of  the 
emotional  independence  of  the  individual,  and  there  is  involved  a 
certain  largeness  of  religious  experience  in  the  modern  sense  of  the 
term.  The  demand  for  the  supernatural  friend  represents  a  ger- 
minal desire  for  intimate  personal  relations  with  the  divine  world ; 
and,  though  the  particular  form  that  embodied  the  conception  has 
given  way  before  more  refined  ideas,  the  conception  itself  has  sur- 
vived in  higher  religions  in  the  choice  of  patron  saints.2 

538.  Political  conditions.  Political  organization,  in  unifying  a 
community  under  the  control  of  a  central  authority,  tends  to  efface 
local  self-governing'groups.  This  process  is  visible  in  the  increased 
power  of  Melanesian  chiefs,  in  the  royal  governments  of  Polynesia 
and  Western  and  Eastern  Africa,  and  in  the  inchoate  constitutional 
federations  of  Eastern  North  America.  In  all  these  cases  the  simple 
clan  system  is  reduced  to  small  proportions,  and  totemism  loses  its 
social   significance.    The  way   in  which   the  functions  of  totemic 

1  F.  Boas,  The  Kwakiutl,  p.  393  f. 

2  Cf.  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  iii,  450  ff. 


TOTEM  ISM  AND  TABOO  223 

groups  are  thus  modified  appears  plainly  in  such  governmental 
systems  as  that  of  the  East  African  Baganda  (in  which  heads  of 
clans  have  become  officers  of  the  king's-  household) 1  and  the 
Iroquois  Confederation  (in  which  the  tribes  act  through  their 
representatives  in  a  national  Council  or  Parliament). 

539.  Religions  conditions.  The  personal  guardian  spirit  and  the 
totem,  when  it  assumes  this  character,  sometimes  receive  worship 
—  they  are  treated  as  gods.  But  their  role  as  divinities  is  of  an 
inferior  nature,  and  it  does  not  last  long.  J  )eities  proper  came  into 
existence  as  embodiments  of  the  sense  of  an  extrahuman  govern- 
ment of  the  world  by  anthropomorphic  beings ;  they  are  direct 
products  of  the  constructive  imagination.2  When  the  true  gods 
appear  the  totemic  and  individual  half-gods  disappear.  We  find 
that  totemism  is  feeble  in  proportion  as  theistic  systems  have  taken 
shape,  and  that  where  personal  guardians  are  prominent  there  are 
no  well-defined  gods.  In  Central  Australia  there  is  only  a  vague, 
inactive  form  that  may  be  called  divine ;  a  more  definite  concep- 
tion is  found  in  Southeastern  Australia,  where  the  strictness  of 
totemism  is  relaxed.  Melanesia  and  Polynesia  show  an  increased 
definiteness  of  theistic  figures.  Northwestern  North  America  is, 
in  comparison  with  the  East,  undeveloped  in  this  regard.  Similar 
relations  between  totemism  and  theism  appear  in  India  and  South 
America.  In  a  certain  number  of  cases  the  facts  suggest  that  the 
former  system  has  been  superseded  by  the  latter. 

540.  Cults  of  the  totem  and  of  individual  guardian  spirits  are 
to  be  distinguished  from  certain  other  forms  of  worship  with  which 
they  have  points  of  connection.  The  West  African  fetish  is  the 
abode  of  a  tutelary  spirit,  and  finally  is  absorbed  by  local  gods ;  it 
arises,  however,  from  belief  in  the  sacredness  and  power  of  inani- 
mate things,  and  is  without  the  sense  of  identity  with  the  spirit  that 
characterizes  the  North  American  relation.  The  family  sacred  sym- 
bols that  are  worshiped   in  some  places3  arc  really  family  gods 

1  This  process  is  similar  to  the  gradual  reduction  of  the  European  independent 
barons  to  the  position  of  royal  officers.  '2  See  below,  §  633  f. 

3  As,  for  example,  by  the  Marathas  of  the  Bombay  Presidency  (Frazer,  Totemism 
and  Exogamy,  ii,  276  ff.). 


224     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

(whether  or  not  they  were  originally  totems),  developed,  probably, 
under  Brahmanic  influence.  The  worship  of  a  tutelary  spirit  has 
sometimes  coalesced  with  that  of  an  ancestor,  but  this  is  doubtless 
due  to  the  collocation  of  two  distinct  cults ;  at  a  certain  stage  an 
ancestor  is  naturally  regarded  as  friend  and  protector.  The  general 
potency  termed  "  mana  "  is  not  to  be  connected  particularly  with 
any  one  cult ;  it  represents  a  conception  that  probably  underlies  all 
ancient  forms  of  worship. 

541.  It  thus  appears  that  several  lines  of  social  progress  have 
proved  unfavorable  to  totemism,  and  to  these  movements  it  has 
generally  succumbed.  Its  home  has  been,  and  is,  in  isolated  hunting 
communities ;  agriculture  and  social  intercourse  have  been  fatal  to 
it  as  to  all  early  forms  of  society  based  on  a  belief  in  kinship  with 
nonhuman  natural  objects. 

542.  It  remains  to  mention  the  principal  theories  of  the  origin 
of  totemism  that  are  or  have  been  held,  and  to  ask  what  part  it  has 
played  in  the  history  of  religion. 

543.  Theories  of  the  origin  of  totem  is  hi.  These  may  conveniently 
be  divided  into  such  as  refer  the  origin  to  individual  action,  and 
such  as  refer  it  to  the  action  of  clans. 

544.  Individualistic  theories.  Among  the  earliest  of  theories  were 
those  that  explained  the  totemic  constitution  as  due  to  a  confu- 
sion in  the  minds  of  savages  between  names  and  things.  Individ- 
uals or  families  might  be  named  after  animals,  plants,  and  other 
objects,  and  these,  it  was  supposed,  might  come  to  be  regarded  as 
intimately  associated  with  human  persons,  and  might  be  looked  on 
with  affection  or  reverence  and  even  worshiped.1  Or,  more  defi- 
nitely, it  was  held  that,  the  origin  of  such  names  being  forgotten, 
reverence  for  the  ancestors  led  to  reverence  for  the  things  after 
which  they  were  named  and  identification  with  them  —  a  man 
whose  ancestor  was  called  "  the  Tiger  "  would  think  of  himself  as 
descended  from  a  tiger  and  as  being  of  the  tiger  stock.2    It  is  now 

1  Lord  Avebury  (Sir  John  Lubbock),  Prehistoric  Times,  2d  ed.,  p.  59S,  and  6th  ed., 
p.  610  ;  id.,  Origin  of  Civilisation  (1902),  p.  275  ff. ;  and  his  Marriage,  Totemism,  and 
Religion. 

2  Herbert  Spencer,  Fortnightly  Review,  1870,  and  Principles  of  Sociology,  i,  §  171. 


TOTEM  ISM  AND   TABOO  225 

generally  recognized,  however,  that  the  origin  of  so  widespread  and 
influential  a  system  of  organization  as  totemism  cannot  be  referred 
to  a  mere  misunderstanding  of  nicknames ;  and  whether  such  mis- 
understanding was  general  or  natural  in  early  times  is  open  to  doubt. 

545.  It  sometimes  happens  that  a  man  (generally  a  chief) 
announces  that  after  death  he  will  take  the  form  of  this  or  that 
animal  or  plant,  and  this  procedure,  it  has  been  supposed,  would 
found  a  totemic  family  —  his  descendants  would  revere  the  object 
in  question  as  the  embodiment  of  the  spirit  of  the  ancestor,  would 
take  its  name,  and,  when  it  was  edible,  would  refrain  from  eating 
it.1  It  is  true  that  the  belief  was,  and  is,  not  uncommon  among 
savages  that  a  deceased  person  might  take  the  form  of  some  natural 
object ;  but  the  reported  cases  are  rare  in  which  a  man  deliberately 
enjoins  on  his  descendants  reverence  for  such  an  object  with  the 
result  that  a  quasi-totemic  group  arises.2  This  custom  is  not  fre- 
quent enough  to  account  for  totemism. 

546.  A  theory  suggested  by  the  fact  that  many  clans  perform 
magical  ceremonies  (for  the  purpose  of  increasing  the  supply  of 
food)  is  that,  when  the  magical  apparatus  of  some  body  of  persons 
consisted  of  parts  of  an  animal,  the  animal  would  become  sacred, 
a  magical  society  might  be  formed  by  an  individual  magician,  and 
thus  a  totemic  magic-working  clan  might  be  created.  For  this 
hypothesis  there  is  no  support  except  in  the  fact  that  changes  in 
clan  life  are  sometimes  brought  about  by  the  old  men ;  but  such 
changes  are  modifications  of  existing  usages,  not  new  creations. 
The  power  of  a  savage  man  of  genius  may  be  admitted,  but  to 
account  for  the  known  totemic  communities  we  should  have  to 
suppose  a  vast  number  of  such  men,  in  different  parts  of  the  world, 
all  working  in  the  same  direction  and  reaching  substantially  the 
same  results. 

547.  The  belief  that  a  man  might  deposit  his  soul  in  an  animal 
or  a  plant  or  some  other  object  is  found  in  West  Africa,  North 
America,  and  probably  elsewhere.     As  such  objects  would,  as  a 

1  This  view  is  provisionally  indorsed  by  E.  B.  Tylor,  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropo- 
logical Institute,  xxviii. 

2  One  such  case  is  mentioned  in  Codrington's  Melanesians,  p.  t,^. 


226     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

rule,  not  be  killed  (and  every  individual  of  a  group  would  be  thus 
respected),  it  has  been  supposed  that,  when  various  persons  de- 
posited their  souls  in  the  same  object,  a  totemic  body  would  come 
into  existence.1  This  view  would  account  for  totemic  reverence 
and  for  the  sense  of  kinship,  but  the  objection  to  it  is  that  in  most 
totemic  organizations  the  belief  in  question  has  not  been  certified. 
548.  The  "  conceptional "  theory  refers  the  origin  of  totemism 
to  the  belief,  found  among  certain  peoples,  that  conception  is  pro- 
duced by  the  entrance  into  the  mother's  womb  of  some  object 
(animal,  plant,  or  other)  with  which  the  child  is  identified.2  In  Cen- 
tral Australia  it  is  held  that  what  passes  into  the  woman  is  a  spirit 
child  which  has  a  certain  object  for  its  totem  ;  but  in  this  case  the 
previous  existence  of  the  totem  is  assumed.  In  certain  islands 
(Mota  and  Motlav)  of  the  Banks  group,  however,  there  exists,  it 
is  said,  the  belief  that  a  child  is  the  object  from  which  the  mother 
received  some  influence  at  conception  or  at  some  other  period  of 
pregnancy  —  the  child  resembles  the  object,  and  may  not  eat  it  if 
it  is  edible.3  The  persons  thus  identified  with  a  given  object  would, 
if  united,  constitute  a  group  totemic  in  the  respects  that  they  be- 
lieve themselves  to  be  one  with  the  object  in  question  and  refrain 
from  eating  it.4  The  totemic  object  is  selected,  in  the  case  of  every 
child,  by  the  fancy  of  the  mother,  and  is,  therefore,  not  inher- 
ited;  totemic  groups,  thus,  would  be  found  distributed  through 
the  larger  groups  (phratries  or  tribes),  and  might  also  gradually 
coalesce  and  form  local  groups.  If  the  belief  in  this  origin  of  birth 
(identity  of  the  child  with  some  object)  were  found  to  be  wide- 
spread, and  generally  effective  as  the  ground  of  early  social  organ- 
ization, it  would  furnish  a  satisfactory  explanation  of  totemistic 
beginnings.  But  in  point  of  fact  it  has  so  far  been  found,  in  full 
form,  only  in  a  small  region  in  Melanesia,  and  its  history  in  this 

1  Frazer,  Golden  Bough  (1890),  ii,  332  ff.    This  theory  has  since  been  abandoned 
by  Frazer  {Totemism  and  Exogamy,  iv,  54  f.). 

2  Frazer,  Fortnightly  Review^  July  and  September,  1905,  pp.  154-I/2  (reprinted 
in  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  i)  ;    Totemism  and  Exogamy,  ii,  89  ff.  ;  iv,  57  ff. 

3  Rivers,  "Totemism  in  Polynesia  and  Melanesia"  (in  Journal  of  the  Royal  An- 
thropological Institute,  xxxix  [1909],  172)  ;  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  iv,  59  ff. 

4  This  is  the  theory  adopted  by  Frazer  in  his  latest  work  on  the  subject. 


TOTEM 'ISM  AND  TABOO  227 

region  is  not  known ;  back  of  it  may  lie  some  other  system  of 
organization.  And  in  this  region  clan  totemism  is  lacking  or  faint. 
Further  testimony  is  needed  before  it  can  be  accepted  as  the  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  totemic  origins.1 

549.  A  similar  remark  must  be  made  in  reference  to  theories 
based  on  the  belief  that  the  souls  of  the  dead  are  incarnate  in 
animals  and  plants.  Such  a  belief  is  a  natural  outgrowth  from  the 
conception  of  the  identity  of  nature  of  human  beings  and  animals, 
and  it  occurs  in  so  many  parts  of  the  world  (Oceania,  Africa, 
America)  that  it  might  naturally  be  regarded  as  having  been  at 
one  time  universal,  though  it  is  not  now  found  everywhere. 
Reverence  for  an  ancestor  might  be,  and  sometimes  is,  transferred 
to  the  object  in  which  he  is  supposed  to  be  incarnate ;  from  this 
object  a  man  holds  himself  to  be  descended,  and  he  refrains  from 
eating  or  injuring  it.2  This  view,  a  combination  of  reverence  for 
ancestors  and  reverence  for  animals  and  plants,  thus  supplies  two 
features  of  totemistic  organization,  but  proof  is  lacking  that  it  is 
the  basis  of  this  organization.  If  it  be  the  determining  considera- 
tion in  some  cases-,  there  are  many  cases  in  which  its  influence  is 
not  apparent.  There  are  myths  tracing  the  totemism  of  clans  to 
ancestors  having  animal  forms,  but  these  myths  are  relatively  late 
savage  philosophical  explanations  of  existing  institutions. 

550.  The  relation  of  the  individual  patron  and  guardian  to  the 
clan  totem  has  been  variously  defined.  Such  a  patron,  it  is  some- 
times held  (obtained  by  a  dream  or  a  vision),  descends  from  the 
original  possessor  to  his  children  (or,  in  a  matrilineal  system,  to 
his  sister's  children),  and  thus  becomes  the  patron  (the  totem) 
of  a  family  or  kin  ;  and  a  larger  group,  formed  by  the  union  of 
several  kins,  may  similarly  have  its  protecting  spirit.  Cases  in 
which  descent  is  through  the  mother  here  make  a  difficulty  —  a 

1  The  widespread  belief  that  birth  may  be  independent  of  the  union  of  the  sexes 
does  not,  of  course,  carry  with  it  an  explanation  of  totemism. 

2  Lippert,  Die  Religionen  der  europdischen  Culturvblker,  p.  12:  (I.  A.  Wilkin. 
"  Het  Animisme  bij  de  Volken  van  den  Indischen  Archipel,"  in  Dc  Indische  Gids, 
1884  (cf.  Tylor,  in  Journal  of the  Anthropological  Institute,  xxv'm,  1S99)  ;  G.  M.  Theal, 
Records  of  South-eastern  Africa,  vii,  and  History  and  Ethnography  of  South  Africa, 
i,  90. 


228     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

man's  guardian  spirit  would  not  then  be  inherited.  Granting  that 
the  personal  patron  of  a  shaman  or  of  an  ordinary  man  may  be 
inherited,  such  inheritance  appears  to  be  of  rare  occurrence,  and 
there  is  no  trustworthy  evidence  that  it  ever  leads  to  the  forma- 
tion of  a  totemic  clan. 

551.  It  is  true  there  is  a  resemblance  between  a  man's  relation 
to  his  clan  totem  and  his  relation  to  his  personal  guardian  —  in 
both  cases  the  sacred  object  is  revered  and  spared.  It  is  some- 
times the  case  also  (as,  for  example,  among  the  Australian  Arunta) 
that  the  totem  comes  through  an  individual  (the  mother)  and  is 
not  transmissible,  and  yet  endogamous  clans  arise  by  the  union  of 
persons  having  the  same  totem.    But  here  the  resemblance  ceases 

—  the  Arunta  child's  totem  is  determined  for  him  before  his  birth, 
but  a  man  chooses  his  personal  guardian  for  himself,  and  joins 
others  having  the  same  guardian,  not  in  a  clan  but  in  a  secret 
society.  Furthermore,  the  institution  of  the  personal  guardian  is 
very  rare  except  in  North  America,  and  there  nourishes  in  inverse 
proportion  to  the  strength  of  clan  life  proper. 

552.  On  the  supposition  of  the  primitive  predominance  of  the 
rule  of  descent  through  the  mother  individualistic  theories  of  the 
origin  of  totemism,  with  one  exception,  are  out  of  the  question 

—  the  totem  is  first  chosen  by  a  man,  but  children  would  have 
the  totem  not  of  the  father  but  of  the  mother.  The  exception  is 
the  conceptional  theory,  in  which  the  totem  is  determined  by  the 
mother  —  especially  the  Mota  (Banks  Islands)  form,  in  which  the 
choice  of  a  sacred  object  by  the  woman  is  unlimited.  In  a  small 
community  a  certain  number  of  women  would,  however,  choose 
the  same  object,  and  thus  totemic  groups  would  arise.  This  scheme 
of  organization,  though  not  open  to  the  objection  mentioned  above, 
is  geographically  limited. 

553.  Theories  based  on  clan  action.  Mere  the  starting-point  is  the 
clan,  which  is  supposed  to  have  come  into  existence  somehow  ;  it  is 
not  essential  to  determine  precisely  the  method  of  its  origination, 
though  the  question  of  method  is  sometimes  included  in  the  discus- 
sion of  a  theory.  The  clan  finds  itself  confronted  by  various  natural 
objects  with  which,  it  believes,  it  must  form  helpful  relations ;  or  some 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  229 

sort  of  relation  is  forced  on  it  by  the  conditions  of  life.    The  ques- 
tion is  how  a  human  group  came  to  enter  into  the  totemic  relation. 

554.  The  simplest  answer  is  that  the  primitive  clan  deliberately 
chose  among  all  associated  objects  some  one  to  be  its  particular 
friend  or  its  special  associate,1  naturally  valued  and  respected  this 
object,  refrained  from  eating  it  when  it  was  edible,  took  its  name, 
came  to  regard  it  as  ancestor,  and  created  myths  explanatory 
of  these  conceptions.  This  general  theory  has  assumed  various 
forms,  but  the  objection  usually  made  to  its  central  supposition 
is  that  such  deliberate  choice  is  out  of  keeping  with  the  known 
methods  of  early  societies.  Though  a  certain  amount  of  reflection 
must  be  assumed  for  primitive  men  (the  lower  animals,  indeed, 
show  reflection),  it  is  held  that  so  elaborate  a  system  as  totemism, 
like  other  institutions,  must  have  been  the  product  of  accidental 
experiences,  developed  through  a  long  period  of  time.  Something 
more  definite,  it  is  said,  is  required  in  order  to  account  for  the 
details  of  the  system  —  all  that  can  be  safely  assumed  is  that  early 
man,  constantly  on  the  alert  to  better  his  condition,  took  advan- 
tage of  every  situation  to  strengthen  himself  by  taking  precautions 
against  enemies  or  by  securing  the  aid  of  surrounding  objects, 
human  and  nonhuman. 

555.  The  totem  is  supposed  by  some  to  have  been  originally 
merely  the  mark  or  badge  by  which  a  human  group  distinguished 
itself  from  neighboring  groups.  In  hunting  expeditions  and  migra- 
tions such  a  mark  would  be  necessary  or,  at  any  rate,  useful.2 
More  generally,  it  was  natural  for  a  clan  to  have  a  name  for  itself, 
as  it  had  names  for  its  individual  members  and  for  other  objects. 
It  might  take  its  name  from  an  associated  animal  or  plant  or 
heavenly  body  or  from  a  place.  The  badge  and  the  name  once 
adopted,  other  totemic  features  would  follow.  Such  badges  are  com- 
mon in  Northwestern  America,  and  are  found  elsewhere,  and  the 
term  '  totem  '  has  been  explained  by  natives  as  meaning  '  badge.' 


1  F.  B.  Jevons,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion,  1st  ed.,  p.  10 1. 

2  F.  M.  Miiller,  Anthropological  Religion,  p.  121  ff. ;  Pikler  and  Somld,  Ursprung 
des  Totemismus,  p.  7  ff . ;  A.  K.  Keane,  Ethnology,  p.  10  ;  cf.  G.  M.  Theal,  History  and 
Ethnography  of  South  Africa,  i.  17. 


230     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

But  this  explanation  is  late,  and  the  employment  of  the  sacred 
object  as  badge  is  not  widely  diffused.  When  it  gives  a  clan  its 
name  it  is,  of  course,  a  distinguishing  mark,  but  this  does  not  show 
that  such  distinction  was  in  all  cases  its  original  function.  Nor 
would  the  badge  come  into  use  till  the  name  had  been  fixed. 

556.  The  view  just  mentioned  does  not  attempt  to  explain  how 
a  particular  name  came  to  be  attached  to  a  clan.  This  lack  is 
supplied  by  the  theory  that  a  clan  was  named  by  its  neighbors 
after  the  kind  of  food  on  which  it  chiefly  subsisted.1  The  objec- 
tion to  this  theory  is  that  no  group  of  men  is  known  to  confine 
itself  to  one  article  of  food  — -  savages  eat  whatever  they  can  find 
—  and  moreover  contiguous  groups  would  feed  on  the  same  kinds 
of  food.  A  view  not  open  to  this  objection  is  that  names  of  clans, 
also  given  from  without,  expressed  fancied  resemblances  of  the 
persons  named  to  animals  and  other  objects,  or  peculiarities  of 
person  or  speech,  or  were  derived  from  the  place  of  abode.'2 

557.  It  is  obviously  true  that  human  groups  have  names  derived 
from  objects  with  which  they  are  somehow  specially  connected  ;  in 
the  lists  of  clan-names  in  Oceania,  Africa,  India,  America,  animal 
names  predominate,  but  many  are  taken  from  plants,  and  some 
from  inanimate  objects ; 3  when  groups  become  settled  they  are 
sometimes  called  after  their  places  of  abode.  The  other  supposi- 
tion in  these  "  name  theories  "  — ■  that  the  names  are  given  from 
without  —  is  less  certain.  There  are  examples  of  such  naming  by 
outsiders  —  nicknames,  sometimes  respectful,  sometimes  derisive.4 
But  the  known  cases  are  not  numerous  enough  to  establish  a 
general  rule  —  the  origin  of  names  of  clans  and  tribes  is  largely 
involved  in  obscurity.5  There  is  no  improbability  in  either  theory 
of  the  method  of  naming,  native  or  foreign  —  both  modes  may 
have  existed,  one  in  one  region,  one  in  another,  and  one  group 
may  at  different  times  have  been  called  by  different  names. 

1  A.  C.  Haddon,  in  Report  of  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  1902.  2  A.  Lang,  The  Secret  of  the  Totem,  chap.vi. 

3  Lists  are  given  in  Frazer's  Totemism  and  Exogamy. 

4  Lang,  The  Secret  of  the  Totem,  loc.  cit. ;  Theal,  History  and  Ethnography  of 
South  Africa,  i,  92. 

5  Cf.  A.  W.  Howitt,  Native  Tribes  of  South-East  Australia,  p.  154. 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  231 

558.  "  Cooperative  "  theories  suppose  that  a  number  of  groups 
united  for  economic-  purposes,  to  each  being  assigned  the  duty  of 
increasing  by  magical  means  the  supply  of  a  particular  sort  of  food 
or  other  necessity,  and  procuring  a  portion  for  the  general  store.1 
Such  cooperation,  however,  assumes  too  great  a  capacity  of  organiza- 
tion to  be  primitive.  It  is  hardly  found  outside  of  Central  Australia, 
in  which  region  there  are  indications  of  a  long  period  of  social 
development.2 

559.  The  theory  that  the  totem  is  a  god,  immanent  in  the  clan, 
incarnate  in  every  member  of  the  clan,  a  divine  ancestor,  the  center 
of  the  clan's  religion,3  is  contradicted  by  the  actual  relation  between 
a  clan  and  its  totem  :  the  latter  is  cherished  as  a  kinsman  and  friend, 
but  not  worshiped  as  a  god.4 

560.  Summing-up  on  the  origin  of  totemism.  This  brief  survey 
of  proposed  theories  of  the  origin  of  totemism  is  sufficient  to  show 
the  complexity  of  the  problem.  Not  one  of  the  hypotheses  just 
mentioned  is  universally  accepted,  and  no  one  of  them  appears 
to  account  satisfactorily  for  all  the  known  facts.  Some  of  them 
are  based  obviously  on  data  derived  from  limited  areas.  Australian 
usage  suggested  the  cooperative  theory,  and  Australia  and  Mela- 
nesia the  conceptional  theory.  The  identification  of  totemism  with 
ancestor-worship  comes  from  South  Africa ;  its  connection  with 
the  belief  in  transmigration  is  due  to  Indonesia  ;  its  derivation  from 
the  individual  guardian  is  based  on  a  North  American  institution ; 
and  North  America  probably  suggested  the  badge  theory  also.  It 
may  be  frankly  confessed  that  in  the  present  state  of  knowledge 
all  theories  are  guesses. 

561.  As  there  are  communities  in  which  it  is  probable  or  pos- 
sible that  totemism  has  never  existed,  so  it  is  conceivable  that  it 
has  been  developed  in  different  ways  in  different  places.  Consider- 
ing the  variety  of  circumstances  in  primitive  life,  it  would  not  be 
strange  if  human  groups  found  themselves  impelled  to  take  various 


1  Frazer,  in  Fortnightly  Review,  1899  (this  theory  was  afterwards  abandoned  by 
him)  ;  B.  Spencer,  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xxviii  (1899). 

2  Cf.  Durkheim,  in  Annee  sociologiquc,  v. 

3  Durkheim,  in  Anncc  sociologiquc,  v.  4  See  below,  §  577. 


232      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

paths  in  their  attempts  at  effective  organization.  The  starting-point 
being  reverence  for  animals  and  other  objects  of  nature,  and  be- 
lief in  their  kinship  with  men,  one  human  group  may  have  been 
led  by  some  accidental  experience  to  regard  some  nonhuman  group 
or  object  as  its  ally.  In  another  case  a  name,  adopted  by  a  group 
of  its  own  accord  or  given  it  from  without,  may  have  induced  such 
an  alliance.  Individuals  may  have  imposed  their  guardian  animals 
or  plants  on  communities.  A  badge,  chosen  for  convenience,  may 
have  been  the  beginning  of  a  totemic  organization.  In  these  and 
other  ways  a  group  of  men  may  have  come  to  form  intimate  re- 
lations with  a  nonhuman  group  or  other  object. 

562.  This  fundamental  relation  having  been  established  (with 
aversion  to  eating  or  injuring  the  sacred  object),  various  usages 
would  attach  themselves  to  it  in  accordance  with  general  laws  of 
social  development.  In  many  cases  a  rule  of  exogamy,  for  the 
better  regulation  of  marriage,  would  be  adopted.  When  tribes, 
consisting  each  of  several  clans,  came  into  existence,  a  coopera- 
tive economic  system  would  sometimes  arise :  magical  methods  of 
producing  results,  common  in  early  stages  of  life,  would  be  so  or- 
ganized that  to  every  clan  would  be  assigned  the  duty  of  producing 
a  supply  of  some  sort  of  food.  Following  the  general  tendency  to 
genealogical  construction,  the  belief  in  kinship  with  the  sacred  ob- 
ject would  lead  a  clan  to  imagine  an  ancestor  of  the  same  kind, 
animal  or  animal-human  or  plant  or  rock,  and  myths  explaining 
the  origin  would  be  devised.  Various  other  usages  and  ideas  would 
coalesce  with  those  belonging  to  totemism  proper :  belief  in  the 
superhuman  power  of  nonhuman  things,  including  the  conception  of 
mana;  the  belief  that  every  newborn  child  is  the  reincarnation  of  an 
ancestor ;  recognition  of  omens  from  the  movements  of  such  things ; 
belief  in  the  magical  power  of  names ;  reverence  for  ancestors  —  a 
natural  feeling,  in  itself  independent  of  the  totemic  conception  ;  to- 
tems regarded  as  creators  ;  the  employment  of  totemic  animals  as 
emissaries  to  the  supernatural  Powers.  Thus  the  resultant  social  sys- 
tem would  be  a  congeries  of  beliefs  and  usages,  and  in  such  a  system, 
when  it  appears,  the  totemic  element  must  be  distinguished  from  its 
attachments,  which  must  be  referred  each  to  its  appropriate  source. 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  233 

563.  Function  of  totemism  in  the  development  of  society.  The 
service  of  totemism  to  society  lies  in  the  aid  it  has  given  to  the 
friendly  association  of  men  in  groups.  Common  social  feeling, 
the  perception  of  the  advantage  to  be  gained  by  combination  in  the 
quest  for  food  and  for  defense  against  human  enemies,  originated 
the  formation  of  groups.  Totemism  strengthened  union  by  increas- 
ing the  sense  of  brotherhood  in  the  clan  and  facilitating  the  co- 
operation that  is  a  condition  of  social  progress.  This  sort  of  service 
was  rendered  in  early  times  by  all  systems  in  which  social  relations 
were  connected  with  relations  to  animals  and  other  natural  objects  ; 
but  totemism  made  a  special  appeal  to  the  emotions  and  gave  all 
the  members  of  a  human  group  one  and  the  same  object  of  devotion 
about  which  sentiments  of  loyalty  and  brotherhood  could  crystallize. 
It  is  a  crude,  initial  political  form  that  has  given  way  to  more  defi- 
nite forms. 

564.  It  cannot  be  said  that  totemism  has  contributed  to  economic 
progress  except  in  so  far  as  every  stable  organization  may  be  favor- 
able to  general  progress.  It  has  been  claimed  that  it  effected  the 
domestication  of  animals  and  plants.1  In  support  of  this  claim  it  is 
urged  that,  apart  from  reverence  for  these  objects,  there  is  nothing 
in  savage  ideas  and  customs  that  could  lead  to  domestication.  Early 
man,  seeking  food,  would  try  all  accessible  animals  and  plants  — 
but  why,  it  is  asked,  should  he  desire  to  keep  them  as  attachments 
to  his  home  and  cultivate  them  for  his  own  use  ?  Would  his  pur- 
pose be  amusement  ?  But,  though  savages  sometimes  have  animals 
as  pets,  the  custom  is  not  general,  and  such  pets  are  freely  killed. 
Could  the  motive  be  utility  ?  The  answer  is  that  savages  have 
neither  the  ability  to  perceive  the  advantage,  for  food  and  labor, 
that  would  accrue  from  domestication,  nor  knowledge  of  the  fact 
that  seeds  must  be  kept,  in  order  to  secure  a  crop,  from  one  year 
to  another,  nor  the  self-restraint  to  practice  present  abstinence  for 
the  sake  of  future  good. 

1  Frazer,  in  his  Totemism  (this  view  is  now  given  up  by  him)  ;  F.  B.  Jevons,  Intro- 
duction to  the  History  of  Religion,  Index  ;  S.  Reinach,  Cultes,  mythes  et  religions,  i,  86  ff. ; 
Hahn,  Die  Haustiere,  pp.  28  ff.,  42,  and  his  Demeterund Baubo,  p.  19  ff.  (domestication 
of  cattle  and  use  of  milk  as  food  connected  with  moon-cult).  Cf.  II.  Ling  Roth,  in 
Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xvi,  102  ff. 


234     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

565.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  said,  semireligious  reverence  for 
animals  preserves  them  from  injury,  they  lose  their  fear  of  man, 
and  those  that  are  domesticable  become  tame  and  are  appropriated 
and  used  by  men  ;  and  sacred  plants  are  retained  from  one  year  to 
another  for  ritual  purposes,  and  their  seeds  produce  a  succession 
of  crops.  Totem  animals  are  not  eaten  —  a  pastoral  people  does 
not  eat  its  cattle,  it  keeps  them  for  their  milk.  In  a  word,  animals, 
it  is  held,  are  not  tamed  by  man  of  set  purpose,  but  grow  tame 
when  not  molested,  and  those  that  are  edible  or  capable  of  ren- 
dering service  are  gradually  domesticated ;  and  similarly,  through 
religious  use  of  plants,  the  possibility  of  cultivating  certain  plants 
becomes  known. 

566.  This  argument  rests  on  the  assumption  of  the  universal 
mental  incapacity  of  early  men  —  a  subject  admittedly  obscure. 
Certainly  they  appear  to  be  quite  lacking  in  knowledge  and  re- 
flection in  some  regards ;  yet  they  sometimes  show  remarkable 
skill  in  hunting  (so,  for  example,  the  African  Pygmies),  and  they 
have  created  remarkable  languages.  But,  if  we  leave  the  question 
of  intellectual  capacity  aside,  there  are  facts  that  seem  to  throw 
doubt  on  the  totemic  origin  of  domestication.  In  the  first  place, 
the  conditions  under  which  reverence  for  a  totemic  animal  may 
make  it  tame  do  not  appear  to  have  existed  in  totemic  society. 
For  such  taming  it  is  necessary  that  the  animal  be  perfectly  safe 
within  a  considerable  area.  But  this  is  not  possible  where  a  group 
of  men  is  composed  of  various  clans,  a  given  animal  being  spared 
by  one  clan  but  freely  hunted  and  killed  by  all  the  other  clans x  — 
a  state  of  things  that  was  presumably  universal. 

567.  Further,  it  is  difficult  to  discover  any  historical  connection 
between  the  actual  cases  of  domestication  of  animals  and  reverence 
for  these  as  totems.  It  is  unfortunate  for  the  decision  of  this  ques- 
tion that  in  the  two  principal  totemic  centers,  Australia  and  North 
America,  there  are  very  few  native  domesticable  animals  —  only 
one  (a  species  of  dog)  in  Australia,  and  two  (dog  and  bison)  in 
North  America.   The  history  of  the  dog  in  North  America,  however, 

1  The  totem  belongs  not  to  a  tribe  (Jevons,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Reli- 
gion, p.  114  f.)  but  to  a  clan. 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  235 

is  suggestive:  it  has  been  domesticated  by  totemic  Redmen  for  hunt- 
ing purposes  and  by  nontotemic  Eskimo  for  drawing  sledges  —  that 
is,  its  economic  use  seems  to  be  independent  of  totemic  considera- 
tions. Other  cases  of  divergence  between  employment  of  animals 
and  their  position  as  totems  have  been  cited  in  Uganda,  for  ex- 
ample ; 1  but  civilization  is  relatively  far  advanced  in  Uganda,  and  in 
such  cases  we  cannot  infer  original  conditions  from  existing  customs. 

568.  It  may  fairly  be  surmised  that  observation  in  some  cases 
led  to  the  domestic  use  of  animals.  The  value  of  the  milk  of  cattle, 
goats,  and  mares  as  food  may  have  been  suggested  to  men  who 
were  acquainted  with  the  life  of  these  animals ;  and  valuing  them 
for  their  milk,  their  owners  would  abstain  from  eating  them  except 
under  pressure  of  hunger  or  for  ceremonial  purposes.  Such  a  pro- 
cedure does  not  seem  to  be  beyond  the  capacities  of  very  simple 
communities.  Chance  may  have  suggested  the  function  of  seeds 
in  the  growth  of  plants,  and,  agriculture  once  entered  on,  the  labor 
of  animals  would  gradually  be  utilized.  So  far  as  regards  artistic 
representations,  these  are  found  everywhere,  and  their  occurrence 
on  totemic  poles  (as,  for  example,  among  the  Haidas  of  Queen  Char- 
lotte Islands)  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  special  product  of  totemism. 

569.  Considering  the  obscurity  of  the  subject,  it  is  doubtless 
wise  to  refrain  from  offering  a  universal  theory  of  the  origin  of 
domestication  of  animals  and  plants.  All  that  is  here  contended 
for  is  that  the  large  role  sometimes  assigned  to  totemism  in  this 
regard  is  not  supported  by  the  facts  now  known  to  us.  Future  in- 
vestigations may  bring  with  them  new  constructions  of  early  history. 

570.  Relation  of  totemism  to  religion.  As  the  beginnings  of 
totemism  are  obscure  it  is  not  possible  to  say  exactly  what  a  man's 
attitude  toward  his  totem  was  in  the  earliest  period.  But,  when  the 
totemic  relation  became  a  definite  feature  of  social  organization,  the 
feeling  wras  that  the  totem  was  in  the  nature  of  a  clansman,  of 
the  same  blood  as  the  human  group,  and  entitled  to  all  the  respect 
and  affection  with  which  men  regarded  their  elan-brethren.  The 
sentiment,  in  this  point  of  view,  was  sacred  in  the  sense  in  which 
this  term  may  be  used  of  the  feeling  existing  between  persons  of 

1  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy \  iv,  19. 


236     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  same  human  group  ;  it  involved  a  certain  sense  of  obligation 
toward  fellow  members  —  to  respect  their  rights  and  to  defend  them 
against  enemies  was  an  imperative  duty. 

571.  Totemic  clanship,  however,  differed  from  ordinary  human 
clanship  in  that  the  nonhuman  clan-brother  was  regarded  as  a 
specially  powerful  being,  endowed  with  the  superhuman  qualities 
with  which  all  animals  and  plants  and  certain  other  objects  were 
credited.  Regard  for  the  totem  was,  thus,  part  of  the  regard  paid 
to  nonhuman  objects  in  general,  only  emotionalized  and  intensified 
by  the  belief  that  the  nonhuman  group  was  in  a  peculiar  way  allied 
to  the  human  group.  There  was  not  only  unwillingness  to  injure 
the  totem  —  there  was  fear  that  one  would  suffer  by  such  an  act. 
The  totem,  it  was  believed,  was  able  in  its  turn  to  inflict  injury ; 
and  this  belief  added  an  element  of  awe  to  the  feeling  with  which 
it  was  regarded. 

572.  In  another  respect,  also,  the  totem  shared  the  powers  of 
other  nonhuman  objects  —  it  could  aid  its  friends.  The  expectation 
of  totemic  aid  is,  however,  vague  in  the  earlier  stages  of  organiza- 
tion, that  is,  in  communities  in  which  totemism  proper  is  well-defined 
—  it  appears  to  amount  to  little  more  than  a  feeling  that  things 
will  go  well  if  respect  is  paid  to  the  totem.  In  cases  where  there 
is  more  definite  aid  there  is  always  the  question  whether  the  aid 
is  afforded  by  the  totem  in  its  specific  character  of  clan-brother  or 
merely  in  its  character  of  nonhuman  powerful  thing.  Omens,  for 
example,  are  given  by  all  natural  objects ;  when  an  object  of  this 
sort  happens  to  be  a  totem,  it  is  not  clear  that  its  capacity  of  omen- 
giving  belongs  to  it  simply  as  totem. 

573.  There  is  similar  uncertainty  in  the  case  of  the  Queensland 
practice,  when  a  man,  on  lying  down  at  any  time  or  rising  in  the 
morning,  whispers  the  name  of  the  animal  after  which  he  is  called 
or  the  name  of  the  animal  belonging  to  his  group-division,  in  the 
belief  that  it  will  give  him  success  in  his  affairs ; x  here  the  animal 
is  not  a  clan  totem,  and  the  evidence  does  not  show  that  it  has 
come  from  such  a  totem  —  it  may  be  a  sacred  animal  that  has 
somehow  been  brought  into  special  connection  with  the  man  or 

1  W.  E.  Roth,  quoted  in  Frazer's  Totemism  and  Exogamy \  i,  532. 


TOTEM  ISM  AND   TABOO  237 

with  his  group.    Personal  guardians  that  confer  magical  powers 
on  a  man  do  not  here  come  into  consideration. 

574.  The  relation  between  totemism  and  the  practice  of  magic 
appears  to  be  essentially  one  of  coexistence  in  a  community.  The 
two  belong  to  the  same  stage  of  culture  and  the  same  order  of 
ideas  ;  but  the  fact  that  each  is  found  without  the  other  shows  that 
neither  is  dependent  on  the  other.  Naturally  they  are  sometimes 
combined,  as  sometimes  happens  in  North  America  and  particularly 
in  Central  Australia  (where  every  totemic  clan  is  charged  with  cer- 
tain magical  ceremonies)  ;  yet  this  close  alliance  is  rare.  Magical 
practice  rests  on  a  conception  of  man's  relation  to  nature  that  is 
distinct  from  the  conception  of  kinship  between  a  human  clan  and 
a  nonhuman  species  or  individual  object. 

575.  Secret  societies  sometimes  perform  magical  ceremonies  ; 
but  such  societies  are  not  totemic  —  either  they  have  risen  above 
the  totemic  point  of  view,  or  they  have  sprung  from  ideas  and 
usages  that  are  independent  of  totemism  proper.1 

576.  It  is  difficult  to  find  a  clear  case  of  the  offering  of  religious 
worship  to  a  totem  as  totem.  There  are  the  ceremonies  performed 
by  the  Australian  Warramunga  for  the  purpose  of  propitiating  or 
coercing  the  terrible  water  snake  Wollunqua.2  This  creature  is  a 
totem,  but  a  totem  of  unique  character  —  a  fabulous  animal,  never 
visible,  a  creation  of  the  imagination ;  the  totem  proper  is  a  visible 
object  whose  relations  with  human  beings  are  friendly,  the  Wol- 
lunqua is  savage  in  nature  and  often  hostile  to  men.  He  appears 
to  be  of  the  nature  of  a  god,  but  an  undomesticated  one  —  a  demon, 
adopted  by  a  tribe  as  totem,  or  identified  with  a  previously  existing 
totem.  The  situation  is  an  exceptional  one  and  cannot  be  regarded 
as  evidence  of  general  totemic  worship. 

577.  The  question  whether  a  totem  ever  develops  into  a  god  is 
a  part  of  the  general  question  whether  a  sacred  animal  ever  be- 
comes a  god.3    The  complications  of  early  ideas  and  customs  and 

1  See  above,  §  529  ff. 

2  W.  E.  Roth,  North  Queensland  Ethnography:  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Northern 
Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  226  ff. 

3  See  below,  §  635  ff. ;  cf.  A.  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  ii,  197,  etc.  ;  S.  Rei- 
nach,  Orpheus  (Eng.  tr.),  p.  Si  ff . :   Frazcr.  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  iv,  30  ff. 


238     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  paucity  of  data  for  the  formative  period  of  early  religion  make 
an  answer  to  these  questions  difficult.  As  far  as  regards  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  totem  into  a  true  divine  figure  the  evidence  is  not  deci- 
sive. The  identification  of  heroes  or  gods  with  animals,  their  trans- 
formations into  animals,  and  their  incarnations  in  animal  forms  may, 
indeed,  suggest  such  an  evolution.  Thus,  in  the  island  of  Yam 
(between  Australia  and  New  Guinea)  two  brothers,  Sigai  and 
Maiau,  have  their  shrines,  in  which  they  are  represented  by  a  shark 
figure  and  a  crocodile  figure  respectively,  and  to  them  food  is  pre- 
sented, songs  are  sung,  dances  are  danced  and  prayers  are  offered. 
Other  heroes,  Kwoiam  (a  totem-bringer),  Sida  (an  introducer  of 
the  arts  of  life),  Yadzebub  (a  warrior),  and  some  unnamed  are 
revered  in  islands  of  Torres  Straits.1  In  the  Rewa  district  in  Fiji 
every  village,  it  is  said,  has  a  deity,  and  these  deities  have  the  power 
of  turning  into  animals,  which  are  then  not  eaten  —  that  is,  it  may 
be  supposed,  the  god  is  a  developed  totem.2  In  the  Wakelbura 
tribe  of  Southeast  Australia  the  totem  animal  is  spoken  of  as 
"  father,"  a  title  frequently  given  to  clan  gods.  Household  gods  are 
considered  to  be  incarnate  in  animals  and  other  objects  in  some  of 
the  Caroline  Islands,  in  Tonga  and  Tikopia,  and  in  Samoa,  and 
in  these  islands,  except  Samoa,  the  people  are  supposed  to  have 
descended  from  the  animals  in  question.  Similar  ideas  seem  not 
to  exist  in  the  Americas  or  in  Africa;  in  India  the  influence  of 
Hindu  cults  has  largely  effaced  or  greatly  modified  non-Aryan 
usages  so  that  their  original  form  cannot  generally  be  determined.3 
578.  The  cases  just  mentioned  are  susceptible  of  other  expla- 
nations than  that  of  an  evolution  from  totem  to  god.  The  history 
of  the  cult  of  heroes  in  Yam  and  other  Torres  Straits  islands  is 
obscure,  but  from  known  facts  the  indications  are  that  the  hero 
figures  have  arisen  independently  of  the  totem  figures  and  have 
been,  by  a  natural  process,  identified  with  these.4    The  peculiarity 

1  Haddon,  in  Anthropological  Essays  presented  to  E.  D.  Ty/or,  1S3  ff. 

2  Rivers,  in  Man,  viii  (1908). 

3  Cf.  Frazer,  Totcmism  and  Exogamy,  iv,  31  ff.  The  Bushman  god  Cagn,  who 
has  the  form  of  a  mantis,  and  the  Hindu  monkey-god  Hanuman  seem  to  have  no 
connection  with  totemism. 

4  Cf.  the  remarks  of  Haddon,  op.  cit. 


TOTEMISM  AM)   TABOO 


239 


of  the  Rewa  deities  is  that  the)-  assume  animal  forms  at  will,  and 
such  animals,  not  being  eaten,  are  held  to  be  totems.  Whether  totems 
or  not  they  are  sacred  and  might  easily  be  identified  with  gods  who 
stood  alongside  of  them  ;  an  obvious  explanation  of  this  identity 
would  be  that  the  god  assumed  the  form  of  the  animal.1  A  similar 
explanation  may  be  given  of  incarnations  of  gods  in  animals  —  a 
metamorphosis  is  a  temporary  incarnation.  The  Samoan  Moso  is 
incarnate  in  half  a  dozen  different  objects,  and  some  deities  are 
incarnate  in  men.  As  for  the  title  "  father,"  it  belongs  of  course 
to  the  object  from  which  a  clan  is  supposed  to  be  descended. 

579.  The  sacramental  eating  of  the  totem,  where  such  a  custom 
exists,  involves  a  certain  identity  of  nature  of  totem  and  clan  god, 
but  the  two  are  regarded  as  distinct  —  their  distinctness  is,  indeed, 
a  necessary  condition  of  the  sacrificial  efficacy  of  the  totem  as  a 
means  of  placating  the  deity.2 

580.  Our  review  seems,  thus,  to  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  there 
is  no  good  ground  for  the  opinion  that  a  totem  has  ever  grown 
into  a  god.  The  question,  belonging,  as  it  does,  to  a  period  for 
which  we  have  no  contemporary  records,  must  be  admitted  to  be 
difficult,  and  answers  to  it  must  be  of  the  nature  of  hypotheses ; 
but  gods  and  spirits  appear  to  have  taken  shape  through  processes 
of  thought  different  from  those  that  lie  at  the  basis  of  totemism.3 

Taboo 

581.  So  far  we  have  been  considering  the  growth  of  the  simpler 
religious  ideas  and  the  parallel  development  of  a  quasi-religious 
social  organization.  The  ethical  development  is  no  less  important 
than  the  religious  and  the  political,  with  which  it  has  always  been 
closely  connected.  Ethical  ideas  and  customs  are  in  their  origin 
independent  of  religion.  Religion  deals  with  the  relation  between 
human  beings  and  supernatural  Powers ;  ethics  has  to  do  with  the 
relation  between  man  and  man.4 

1  So  Zeus  and  other  Greek  gods.        2  Sec  below,  §  1041  ff.        :i  See  below.  §  635. 

4  The  moral  perfection  of  the  individual  is  an  ideal  that  has  arisen  out  of  social 
relations ;  it  is  demanded  by  the  deity  because  the  moral  standard  of  a  deity  is  that 
of  his  human  society. 


240     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

582.  Thus,  the  necessity  for  the  protection  of  life  and  property 
(including  wives  and  children)  has  produced  certain  rules  of  conduct, 
which  are  at  first  handed  on  orally  and  maintained  by  custom,  and 
gradually  are  formulated  in  written  codes.  The  protection  of  the 
tribal  life  is  secured  by  the  tribal  leaders  as  representatives  of 
society.  The  protection  of  individual  interests  is  at  first  in  the 
hands  of  the  individuals  concerned,  but  always  under  the  sanction 
of  society.  The  murderer,  the  thief,  and  the  adulterer  are  dealt 
with  by  the  person  injured  or  by  his  clan  or  family,  in  accordance 
with  generally  recognized  regulations.  As  social  life  becomes  more 
elaborate,  such  regulations  become  more  numerous  and  more  dis- 
criminating ;  every  new  ethical  rule  springs  from  the  necessity  of 
providing  for  some  new  social  situation.  In  all  communities  the 
tendency  is  toward  taking  the  protection  of  interests  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  individual  and  committing  it  to  the  community ;  this 
course  is  held  to  be  for  the  advantage  of  society.1 

583.  As  men  are  constituted,  to  account  for  the  growth  of  moral 
customs  we  need  to  assume  only  social  life ;  practically  all  our  re- 
quirements that  refer  to  the  relations  between  men  are  found 
among  early  tribes,  and  it  may  be  taken  for  granted  that  any  body 
of  human  beings,  living  together  and  having  some  form  of  activity, 
would  work  out  some  such  system  of  rules,  mostly  negative  or 
prohibitive  but  also  to  some  extent  positive.  Even  the  law  of  kind- 
ness, a  product  of  natural  human  sympathy,  exists  among  the 
lowest  known  peoples.  The  reference  of  moral  growth  to  social 
necessities  does  not  involve  the  denial  of  a  germinal  sense  of  right 
and  wrong  or  of  germinal  moral  ideals,  but  this  sense  and  these 
ideals  arise,  through  reflection,  from  experience.  We  are  here  con- 
cerned only  with  the  actual  conduct  of  men  traceable  in  the  early 
forms  of  society. 

584.  But  while  social  life  is  the  basis  of  ethical  construction,  the 
actual  ethical  constitution  of  men  has  been  influenced  by  religion, 
in  later  times  by  the  supplying  of  lofty  ideals  and  sanctions,  in 
early  times  by  a  magical  determination  of  things  injurious.  It 
is  this  second  category  that  is  covered  by  the  term  *  taboo,'  a 

1  In  international  relations  this  tendency  appears  in  the  demand  for  arbitration. 


TOTEM  ISM  AND   TABOO  24 1 

Polynesian  word  said  to  mean  '  what  is  prohibited.'  Prohibitions 
arising  from  natural  human  relations  constitute  civil  law;  those 
arising  from  extrahuman  or  other  magical  influences  constitute 
taboo.1 

585.  Early  man,  regarding  all  objects  as  possibly  endowed  with 
power,  selects  out  of  the  whole  mass  by  observation  and  experi- 
ence certain  objects  which  affect  his  life,  his  relations  with  which 
he  finds  it  desirable  to  define.  These  are  all  mysterious ; 2  some 
are  helpful,  some  harmful.  The  helpful  objects  become  lucky 
stones,  amulets.  The  injurious  or  dangerous  objects  are  the  more 
numerous ;  in  an  atmosphere  of  uncertainty,  the  mysterious  is 
dreaded,  avoided,  and  guarded  against  by  rules.3 

586.  The  objects  affected  by  the  conception  of  taboo  are  as 
various  as  the  conditions  of  human  life  — -  they  include  things  inani- 
mate and  animate,  and  events  and  experiences  of  all  sorts.  Some- 
times the  clanger  is  supposed  to  be  inherent  in  the  object,  sometimes 
the  quality  of  dangerousness  is  imposed  on  it  or  infused  into  it  by 
some  authority ;  but  in  all  cases  there  is  present  the  force  (mana) 
that,  in  savage  theory,  makes  the  external  world  a  factor  in  human 
destinies.4  This  force  may  be  transmitted  from  one  object  to 
another  (usually  by  contact5),  and  thus  the  taboo  infection  may 
spread  indefinitely,  a  silent  and  terrible  source  of  misfortune,  some- 
times to  a  single  person,  sometimes  to  a  whole  community.  ( 'ere- 
monies  connected  with  taboo  are  designed  to  protect  against  this 
destructive  influence. 

1  N.  VV.  Thomas,  article  "  Taboo  "  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  1  ith  ed. ;  Codring- 
ton,  The  Melanesians;  Thomson,  Story  of  New  Zealand;  A.  van  Gennep,  Ttibou  ct 
totemisme  a  Madagascar;  Wallace,  Malay  Archipelago,  p.  149  f. ;  J.  G.  Frazer,  Early 
History  of  the  Kingship  ;  Marett,  "  Is  Taboo  a  Negative  Magic  ?  "  (in  Anthropological 
Essays  presented  to  E.  D.  Tylor). 

2  Cf.  the  Chickasa  hullo,  said  to  mean  '  mysterious  '  (Speck,  in  Journal  of  Amer- 
ican Folklore,  xx.  z,y). 

3  The  danger  from  such  objects  is  referred  to  a  supernatural  presence,  whose 
attitude  toward  human  beings  may  be  doubtful  ;  only,  when  the  phenomenon  ob- 
served is  thought  to  be  nonnatural  and  is  afflictive  (as  in  the  case  of  death,  for 
example),  this  attitude  is  judged  to  be  hostile. 

4  Purely  economic  and  other  social  considerations  are  sometimes  combined  with 
the  mana  conception. 

5  The  physical  unity  produced  by  contact  may  be  brought  about,  according  to 
savage  philosophy,  in  other  ways. 


242     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

587.  The  principal  taboo  usages  may  be  classed  roughly  under 
certain  heads,  which,  however,  will  sometimes  overlap  one  another. 

588.  Taboos  connected  with  the  conception  of  life.  For  early  man 
the  central  mystery  of  the  world  was  life,  and  mystery  and  danger 
attached  to  all  things  connected  with  its  genesis,  maintenance,  and 
cessation  —  to  pregnancy,  birth,  death,  corpses,  funerals,  blood. 
Against  these  things  precautions,  in  the  form  of  various  restric- 
tions, had  to  be  taken.  Pregnancy  was  sometimes  regarded  as  due 
to  supernatural  agency,  and  in  all  cases  was  noted  as  a  mysterious 
condition  in  which  the  woman  was  peculiarly  exposed  to  evil  influ- 
ences ;  she  was  sometimes  required  to  keep  her  head  covered  or 
to  avoid  moonshine,  or  to  live  separated  from  her  husband.1 

589.  Care  for  women  during  pregnancy  and  after  the  birth  of 
a  child  might  be  induced  by  natural  human  kindliness.  But  certain 
usages  in  connection  with  birth  indicate  fear  of  superhuman  dan- 
gers. In  many  regions  (Central  Asia,  Africa,  Oceania,  China)  the 
mother  is  taboo  for  a  certain  time,  being  regarded  apparently  as 
a  source  of  clanger  to  others,  as  well  as  being  herself  exposed  to 
danger.  The  child  also  is  surrounded  by  perils.  Mother  and  child 
are  protected  by  isolation,  ablutions  (baptism),  amulets,  conjurations, 
and  by  consecration  to  a  deity.2  The  intimate  relation  between 
father  and  child  may  make  it  necessary  to  impose  taboos  on  the 
former  —  he  is  sometimes  required  to  go  to  bed  (the  couvade,  or 
man-childbed),  to  abstain  from  work  and  from  certain  foods  held 
to  be  injurious,  and  to  avoid  touching  weapons  and  other  dangerous 
things ;  thus,  through  the  identity  of  father  and  child,  the  latter  is 
guarded  against  the  hostile  mana  that  may  be  lurking  near.  The 
seclusion  of  the  mother  sometimes  varies  in  duration  according  to 
the  sex  of  the  child  ;  in  most  cases,  apparently,  the  period  is  longer 
for  a  male  child  ; 3  in  the  Jewish  ritual  the  period  for  the  maid-child 
is  twice  as  great  (eighty  days)  as  that  for  the  male  ;  4  the  difference 

i  Ploss-Bartels,  Das  Weib,  i,  591  ;  cf.  E.  S.  Hartland,  Primitive  Paternity  ;  Avesta, 
Vendidad,  xv,  8. 

2  Article  "  Birth"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

3  Ploss-Bartels,  Das  \Vcib,\\,  345  ff. 

4  Lev.  xii.  In  the  modern  Parsi  usage  a  woman  after  giving  birth  is  secluded 
forty  days. 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  243 

in  the  points  of  view,  perhaps,  is  that  the  evil  influence  may 
direct  itself  particularly  against,  or  be  more  serious  for,  the  male  as 
socially  the  more  important,  or  it  may  be  more  dangerous  for  the 
female  as  the  weaker.1 

590.  Taboos  connected  with  death.  The  danger  to  the  living 
arising  from  a  death  is  of  a  twofold  nature  :  the  corpse,  as  a 
strange,  uncanny  thing,  is  a  source  of  peril ;  and  there  are  possi- 
ble external  enemies  —  the  spirit  that  produced  the  death,  and  the 
ghost  of  the  departed.  Against  these  dangerous  things  avoidance 
of 'the  corpse  is  the  common  precaution  —  a  dead  body  must 
not  be  touched,  or,  if  it  is  touched,  he  who  touches  must  undergo 
purification.2  Perhaps  the  various  modes  of  disposing  of  corpses 
(exposure,  inhumation,  cremation)  were  originally  attempts  to  get 
rid  of  their  dangerous  qualities ;  later  other  motives  came  in.  The 
body  of  a  suicide  was  especially  feared,  and  was  staked  down  on 
a  public  way  to  prevent  its  reappearance ;  it  was  perhaps  the  ab- 
normal and  desperate  character  of  the  death  that  produced  this 
special  fear.  The  dread  of  a  corpse  is,  however,  not  universal 
among  savages  —  in  many  cases  it  is  eaten,  simply  as  food  or  to 
acquire  the  qualities  of  the  deceased,  or  for  other  reasons.  It  is 
feared  as  having  hurtful  power,  it  is  eaten  as  being  sacred  or  helpful. 

591.  The  house  in  which  a  death  occurs  shares  the  evil  power 
of  the  dead  body,  and  sometimes  must  be  destroyed,  together  with 
all  its  furniture,  or  abandoned  or  purified.3  Death  diffuses  its  bale- 
ful influence  through  the  atmosphere,  making  it  unfavorable  for 
ordinary  work,  which,  accordingly,  is  often  then  suspended  for  a 
time.4  Seclusion  is  sometimes  enjoined  on  widower  or  widow,5  and 
mention  of  the  name  of  the  deceased  is  forbidden  —  the  identity 
of  spouse  or  name  with  the  dead  effects  the  transmission  of  what  is 

1  On  the  relation  between  birth  customs  and  systems  of  relationship  (patrilineal 
and  matrilineal)  see  the  references  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics, 
ii,  636. 

2  Numb,  xix,  1 1  ff.  For  the  Mazdean  rules  see  Tiele-Gehrich,  Geschichte  der 
Religion  im  Attertum,  ii,  340  ff. 

3  Sanitary  purposes  may  have  entered  into  such  customs. 

4  Seligmann,  The  Melancsians  of  British  New  Guinea,  chap,  xxiii,  p.  13S,  etc.; 
Turner,  Samoa,  p.  145  f. :    Kidd,  The  Essential  Kafir,  p.  253. 

5  Ellis,  The  Ewe-speaking  Peoples,  p.  160. 


244     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

dangerous  in  him.  In  another  direction  the  earthly  dwelling  of  a  dead 
person  is  protected  —  a  curse  is  pronounced  on  one  who  violates  it.1 

592.  Taboos  connected  with  woman  and  the  relations  between 
the  sexes.  Among  many  peoples  there  is  dread  of  the  presence 
of  women  and  of  their  belongings  under  certain  circumstances.2 
The  ground  of  this  fear  may  lie  in  those  physiological  peculiarities 
of  woman  which  are  regarded  as  mysterious  and  dangerous,  and 
the  antagonism  of  feeling  may  have  been  increased  by  the  separa- 
tion between  the  sexes  consequent  on  the  differences  in  their  social 
functions  and  their  daily  pursuits.  Woman  seems  to  move  in  a 
sphere  different  from  that  of  man;  she  acts  in  ways  that  are 
strange  to  him.  Whatever  its  ground,  the  feeling  of  dread  is  a  real 
one  :  a  case  is  reported  of  a  man  who,  on  learning  that  he  had  lain 
down  on  his  wife's  blanket,  became  violently  ill. 

593.  Various  restrictions  are  imposed  on  women  at  periods  of 
sexual  crisis.  The  girl  on  reaching  the  age  of  puberty  is  generally 
(though  not  always3)  immured,  sometimes  for  weeks  or  months, 
to  shield  her  from  noxious  influences,  human  and  nonhuman.  Dur- 
ing menstruation  a  woman  is  isolated,  may  not  be  looked  on  by  the 
sun,  must  remain  apart  from  her  husband,  and  her  food  is  strictly 
regulated.4  It  is  not  infrequently  the  case  that  certain  foods  are 
permanently  forbidden  women,  for  what  special  reasons  is  not 
clear.5  The  rule  forbidding  a  wife  to  eat  with  her  husband  may 
have  come  originally  from  nonreligious  social  considerations  (her 
subordination  to  the  man,  or  the  fact  that  she  belonged  to  a  social 
group  different  from  his),  but  in  that  case  it  later  acquired  a  religious 
character.  Women  have  commonly  been  excluded  in  savage  com- 
munities from  solemn  ceremonies  (as  those  of  the  initiation  of  males) 
and  from  tribal  councils  ; 6  such  rules  may  have  originated  in  the 
natural  differentiation  of  social  functions  of  the  sexes  or  in  the 

1  Cicero,  Dc  Legibus,  ii,  26  (Athens)  ;  Roman  Digests,  xlvii,  12  ;  Corpus  Inscrip- 
tionum  Semiticarum,  i,  13  (Phoenician)  ;  and  so  among  many  savage  and  half-civilized 
peoples.  2  Crawley,  The  Mystic  Rose,  chap.  iii. 

3  Seligmann,  The  Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  p.  140. 

4  Ploss-Bartels,  Das  Weib,  i,  296,  302,  374,  618. 

5  Frazer,  article  "Taboo"  in  E)icyclopcedia  Britannica,  9th  ed. 

6  Seligmann,  The  Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  p.  466  ;  Crawley,  The  Mystic 
Rose,  p.  52  ff. 


TOTEMISM  AND  7\  1 1100  245 

desire  of  men  to  keep  the  control  of  tribal  life  in  their  own  hands, 
but  in  many  cases  the  presence  of  women  was  supposed  to  vitiate 
the  proceedings  supernaturally.  In  industrial  enterprises,  such  as 
hunting  and  fishing,  they  are  sometimes  held  to  be  a  fatal  influence.1 
In  family  life  a  wife's  mother  was  debarred  from  all  social  inter- 
course with  her  son-in-law.2 

594.  Where  procreation  was  ascribed  to  the  union  of  the  sexes, 
sexual  intercourse,  as  being  intimately  connected  with  life,  was 
credited  with  supernatural  potency,  generally  unfavorable  to  vigor.8 
It  has  been  largely  prohibited  on  all  important  public  occasions, 
such  as  hunting  and  war,  and  particularly  in  connection  with  reli- 
gious ceremonies.4  Various  considerations  may  have  contributed 
to  the  establishment  of  such  customs,  but  in  their  earliest  form  we 
have,  probably,  to  recognize  not  any  moral  effort  to  secure  chastity, 
but  a  dread  of  injurious  mana  resident  in  women.5  We  may  com- 
pare the  fact  that  women  have  often  been  regarded  as  specially 
gifted  in  witchcraft.6 

595.  Taboos  connected  ivith  great  personages.  The  theory  of 
mana  includes  the  belief  that  special  supernatural  power  resides  in 
the  persons  of  tribal  leaders,  such  as  magicians,  chiefs,  priests.  It 
follows  that  danger  attaches  to  their  bodies  (particularly  to  head, 
hair,  and  nails),  to  their  names,  and  to  their  food  and  other  belong- 
ings. These  things  must  be  avoided  :  their  food  must  not  be  eaten 
by  common  folk ;  their  houses  and  other  property  must  not  be 
used ;  their  nail-cuttings  must  be  buried  so  that  danger  may  be 
averted  from  the  community  ;  their  names  must  not  be  mentioned. 
They  themselves,  being  peculiarly  sensitive  to  malign  influences, 
must  be  protected  in  the  house  and  when  they  walk  out ;  and  it  is 

1  G.  Brown,  Melanesians  and  Polynesians,  p.  241  ;  W.  H.  Furness,  3d,  The  Island 
of  Stone-Money,  p.  38  f.  -  Crawley,  The  Mystic  Nose,  p.  399  ff. 

3  A  physiological  basis  for  this  view  seems  to  lie  outside  the  resources  of  savage 
observation,  but  prohibition  of  intercourse  just  after  childbirth  may  have  a  humani- 
tarian basis. 

A  ('•.  Brown,  Melanesians  and  Polynesians,  pp.  68,  80,  200  :  Seligmann,  The  Mel- 
anesians of  British  New  Guinea,  p.  292;  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  addi- 
tional note  C. 

5  Cf.  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  ideas,  ii,  406  ff . ;  Hob- 
house,  Morals  in  Evolution,  Index,  s.v.  Chastity. 

6  See  below,  §  805  ff .  •  Westermarck,  op.  cit.,  i,  620  ff . 


246     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

in  some  cases  not  safe  for  the  common  man  to  look  on  the  chief 
as  he  passes  through  the  village. 

596.  Not  all  these  regulations  are  found  in  any  one  community, 
but  the  principle  is  the  same  everywhere.  The  greatest  develop- 
ment of  taboo  power  in  chiefs  occurs  in  Polynesia,  the  home  of 
taboo.  There  they  are  all-powerful.  Whatever  a  chief  touches  be- 
comes his  property.  If  he  enters  a  house,  steps  into  a  canoe,  affixes 
his  name  to  a  field,  it  is  his.  His  control  appears  to  be  limited  only 
bv  the  accident  of  his  momentary  desire.  No  one  thinks  of  oppos- 
ing his  decisions  —  that  would  be  fatal  to  the  opposer.  This  social 
situation  passes  when  a  better  form  of  civil  government  is  estab- 
lished, but  some  features  of  the  old  conception  cling  to  later  digni- 
taries :  till  recently  the  nail-parings  of  the  emperor  of  Japan  were 
carefully  disposed  of  lest,  being  inadvertently  touched,  they  should 
bring  misfortune. 

597.  A  priest  also  may  carry  taboo  infection  on  his  person.  In 
Ezekiel's  scheme  of  ritual  organization  it  is  ordered  that  when  the 
priest,  having  offered  sacrifice,  goes  forth  into  the  outer  court  where 
the  people  are,  he  shall  put  off  the  garments  in  which  he  ministered 
and  lay  them  in  a  sacred  place,  and  put  on  other  garments,  lest 
some  one  touching  him  should  be  made  ritually  unclean,  that  is 
taboo,  forbidden  to  mingle  with  his  fellows  or  to  do  his  ordinary 
work  for  a  certain  time  (generally  till  the  evening).1  In  many  re- 
gions there  have  been  and  are  numerous  restrictions  on  priests, 
some  of  which  are  in  their  own  interests  (to  preserve  their  ritual 
purity),  some  in  the  interests  of  others  (to  guard  them  against  the 
infection  of  taboo).2  Other  quasi-official  or  devoted  persons  (as, 
for  example,  the  Hebrew  Nazirite3)  were  subject  to  restrictions  of 

1  Ezek.  xliv,  19.  The  term  "  sanctify"  of  the  English  Version  means  '  make  ritu- 
ally sacred,'  not  to  be  touched.  Cf.  Shortland,  Southern  Districts  of  Nenv  Zealand, 
p.  293  f. ;  Wellhausen,  Reste  arabischen  Heidentumes,  p.  106  f. 

2  For  Jewish  rules  see  Lev.  xxi.  The  onerous  restrictions  on  the  Roman  flamen 
dialis  and  his  wife  are  given  in  Frazer's  Golden  Bough  (see  Index,  s.v.  Flamen  dia- 
lis)  and  the  authorities  cited  by  him. 

3  The  prohibition  of  the  products  of  the  grapevine  to  the  Nazirite  (Numb,  vi,  3  f.) 
seems  to  have  been  originally  part  of  the  attempt  to  follow  the  old  pastoral  life,  in 
contrast  with  the  Canaanite  agricultural  life  ;  later  it  received  a  religious  coloring. 
The  prohibition  might  begin  at  the  moment  of  the  child's  conception  (Judg.  xiii,  4, 14). 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  247 

food.  Strangers,  who  in  a  primitive  period  were  frequently  put 
to  death,  in  a  more  humane  period  were  subjected  to  purifying 
processes  in  order  to  remove  the  taboo  infection  that  might  cling 
to  them.1 

598.  Industrial  taboos.  The  customs  of  certain  Polynesian 
chiefs,  described  above,  cannot  be  said  to  aid  industry,  but  there 
are  taboo  usages  designed  to  protect  and  further  popular  occu- 
pations. These  doubtless  have  a  natural  nonmagical  basis  —  the 
necessity  of  making  good  crops  and  protecting  private  property 
would  be  recognized  everywhere,  and  would  call,  forth  legal  enact- 
ments ;  but  it  was  inevitable,  in  certain  communities,  that  such 
enactments  should  be  strengthened  by  supernatural  sanctions  such 
as  those  offered  by  the  conception  of  taboo. 

599.  Protective  arrangements  of  this  sort  abound  in  Oceania 
and  Indonesia.  In  Samoa  the  sweet-potato  fields  are  taboo  till 
the  crop  is  gathered.'2  Hawaiian  fisheries  are  protected  by  the  sim- 
ple device  of  forbidding  the  taking  of  certain  fish  at  certain  seasons  ; 
here  the  economic  motive  is  obvious,  but  taboo  penalties  are  an- 
nexed.3 During  planting  time  in  New  Zealand  all  persons  employed 
in  the  work  were  taboo  for  other  occupations  and  obliged  to  give 
all  their  time  to  the  planting ;  and  the  same  rule  held  for  hunting 
and  fishing.4  The  Borneo  Kayans  refrain  from  their  usual  occupa- 
tions during  planting,  harvesting,  and  the  search  for  camphor.5 
Similar  restrictions,  of  an  elaborate  kind,  are  in  force  in  Sumatra,6 
and  in  Assam.7 

600.  The  property  of  private  persons  was  protected  :  the  com- 
mon man  might  impose  a  taboo  on  his  land,  crops,  house,  and  gar- 
ments, and  these  were  then  safe  from  depredation.  It  was  true, 
however,  in  New  Zealand  as  elsewhere,  that  the  potency  of  the  im- 
posed taboo  depended  on  the  influence  of  him  who  imposed  it; 
chiefs,  as  uniting  in  their  persons  civil  and  religious  authority,  were 

1  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  cd.,  i,  299  ff.  -   Turner,  Samoa. 

3  Alexander,  Short  History  of  the  Hawaiian  People. 

4  R.  Taylor,  New  Zealand,  chap.  viii. 

5  Furness,  Home  Life  of  the  Borneo  Head-hunters,  p.  160  ff. 

6  C.  S.  Hurgronje,  The  Achehnese,  p.  262  ff. 

7  T.  C.  Hodson,  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xxxvi. 


248      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  most  powerful  persons  in  the  community,  and  taboos  ordered 
by  them  were  the  most  effective.  In  Melanesia  taboo  is  largely 
employed  for  the  protection  of  private  property  —  curses  are  pro- 
nounced against  trespassers,  and  the  authority  of  the  tabooer  is 
reenforced  by  that  of  the  local  spirit  or  ghost  {tindald)  ; x  here 
taboo  has  become  definitely  an  element  of  civil  law,  in  which  it 
tends  to  be  absorbed. 

601.  Taboos  connected  with  other  important  social  events.  It  ap- 
pears that  all  occurrences  supposed  to  affect  the  life  of  the  com- 
munity have  been,  and  often  still  are,  regarded  as  bringing  with 
them,  or  as  attended  by,  supernatural  influences  (resident  in  mana 
or  in  spirits)  that  may  be  dangerous.  Against  these  perils  the 
usual  precautions  are  taken,  one  of  the  commonest  (as  in  cases 
mentioned  in  the  preceding  paragraphs)  being  abstinence  from 
ordinary  work ;  the  belief,  apparently,  is  that  such  work  is  tainted 
with  the  injurious  influence  with  which  the  atmosphere  is  charged. 

602.  Among  religious  ceremonies  the  expulsion  of  evil  spirits 
was  naturally  attended  with  danger,  and  work  was  prohibited. 
Such  was  the  custom  in  Athens  at  the  Anthesteria  and  on  the 
sixth  day  of  the  Thargelia,  and  in  Rome  at  the  Lemuria.2  Among 
existing  tribes  there  are  numerous  examples  of  this  sort  of  restric- 
tion :  it  is  found  in  West  Africa  3  and  in  Indonesia  (Kar  Nicobar, 
Bali4)  ;  in  Assam  it  takes  the  form  of  a  taboo  (genua)  for  laying 
to  rest  the  ghosts  of  all  who  have  died  within  the  year5  (an  All 
Souls  ceremony). 

603.  In  general,  sacred  seasons,  times  of  great  communal  cere- 
monies, demand  the  avoidance  of  ordinary  pursuits,  which,  it  is 
feared,  may  imperil  the  success  of  the  ceremonies  by  necessi- 
tating contact  with  things  infected  or  nonsacred.  The  earlier 
Hebrew  usage  recognized  such  seasons  (new  moon,  sabbath,  and 
perhaps  others) ;  the  later  usage  increased  the  number  of  tabooed 

1  Codrington,  The  Mclanesians,  p.  215  ff. 

2  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  pp.  50,  96  ff. ;  Fowler, 
Roman  Festivals,  p.  106  ff.  3  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  iii,  76  f. 

4  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xxxii ;  Frazer,  op.  cit.,  iii,  So. 

5  T.  C.  Hodson,  "The  Genna  amongst  the  Tribes  of  Assam"  (in  Journal  of  the 
Anthropological  Institute,  xxxvi). 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  249 

days  as  the  ritual  was  expanded  and  organized.1  For  Greece 
we  have  the  Plynteria,  on  the  principal  day  of  which  work  was 
suspended;"  in  Rome  the  feriae  were  such  days,  regular  or  occa- 
sional.3 The  inbringing  of  first  fruits  was  a  peculiarly  solemn 
occasion,  when  gratitude  to  the  deity  mingled  with  fear  of  hostile 
influences;  so  among  the  Hebrews4  and  at  Athens5  and  in  Tonga/' 
Polynesian  restrictions  on  the  occasion  of  ceremonies  are  given  by 
Ellis.7  All  such  days  of  abstinence  from  ordinary  work  tend  to  be- 
come holidays,  times  of  popular  amusement,  and  a  taboo  element 
may  be  suspected  in  such  festivals  as  those  of  the  later  Hindu  pe- 
riod.8 Naturally,  also,  days  of  restriction  become  sacred  to  deities. 
604.  Great  nonreligious  tribal  events  and  peculiar  situations  de- 
mand restrictive  precautions.  Warriors  prepare  for  an  expedition 
by  remaining  apart  from  their  wives.9  Women  whose  husbands 
are  absent  are  sometimes  immured  or  forbidden  all  intercourse 
with  human  beings  ;  by  reason  of  the  identity  of  husband  and  wife 
supernatural  harm  to  the  latter  will  affect  the  former.  Afflictive 
occurrences,  such  as  famines,  pestilences,  earthquakes,  are  signs 
of  some  hostile  supernatural  power,  defense  against  which  requires 
the  avoidance  of  ordinary  pursuits.  Arbitrary  enactments  by  chiefs 
may  attach  restrictions  to  a  particular  day.  Sometimes  restrictive 
usages,  of  obscure  origin,  become  communal  law.  Thus,  every 
Toda  clan  has  certain  days  of  the  week  (not  the  occasion  of  special 
ceremonies)  in  which  it  is  forbidden  to  follow  ordinary  occupa- 
tions ;  among  the  things  forbidden  are  the  giving  of  feasts,  the 
performance  of  funeral  ceremonies,  the  cutting  of  nails,  and  shav- 
ing ;  women  and  dairymen  may  not  leave  the  village,  and  the 
people  and  buffaloes  may  not  move  from  one  place  to  another.10 
Doubtless  this  system  of  prohibitions  is  the  outcome  of  many  gen- 
erations of  experience  —  the  organization  of  various  local  usages. 

1  Lev.  xxiii ;  Numb,  xxviii  f. 

-  Stengel  and  Oehmichen,  Griechische  Sakralaltertilmer,  p.  170. 

3  Wissowa,  Religion  der  Rb'mer,  p.  565  ff.  4  Numb,  xxviii,  26. 

5  The  Thargelia ;  Harrison,  op.  cit..  chap.  iii.  i;  Mariner.  Tonga,  p.  483. 

'  \\.  Ellis,  Polynesian  Researches,  iv.  388,  etc. 

8  Cf.  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  448  ff. 

9  Cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  additional  note  C. 
1°  Rivers,  The  Todas,  p.  405  ff. 


250     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

605.  Taboos  connected  with  the  moon.  Unusual  celestial  phenom- 
ena, such  as  eclipses,  meteors,  and  comets,  have  always  excited 
terror,  being  referred  to  some  hostile  supernatural  agency,  and 
have  called  forth  special  placative  and  restrictive  ceremonies.  They 
are  accounted  for  in  savage  lore  by  various  myths.1  But  the  per- 
manently important  taboos  have  been  those  that  are  associated 
with  the  phases  of  the  moon.  These  periodical  transformations, 
unexplained  and  mysterious,  seemed  to  early  man  to  have  vital 
relation  with  all  earthly  life  —  the  wasting  and  waning  of  the  moon 
was  held  to  determine,  through  the  sympathy  existing  between  all 
things,  the  growth  and  decay  of  plants,  animals,  and  men.2  Hence 
arose  the  widely  diffused  belief  that  all  important  undertakings 
should  be  begun  while  the  moon  was  increasing,  and  innumerable 
regulations  for  the  conduct  of  affairs  were  established,  not  a  few 
of  them  surviving  in  civilized  popular  belief  and  practice  to  the 
present  day. 

606.  Sometimes  the  changes  in  the  moon  are  minutely  observed. 
The  Nandi  describe  every  day  of  the  month  by  the  appearance  of 
the  moon  or  by  its  relation  to  occupations.3  Natural  observation 
in  some  cases  divided  the  lunar  month  into  four  parts :  the  Bud- 
dhist uposatha  days  are  the  four  days  in  the  lunar  month  when  the 
moon  is  full  or  new  or  halfway  between  the  two;4  in  Hawaii  the 
3d-6th,  i4th-i5th,  24th-25th,  27th-28th  days  of  every  month 
were  taboo  periods;5  the  Babylonians  had  five  such  periods  in 
certain  months  (four  periods  with  one  period  intercalated).  But, 
though  the  quartering  of  the  lunation  may  seem  to  us  the  most 
natural  division  of  the  month,  in  actual  practice  it  is  rather  the 
exception.0  The  simplest  division,  indeed,  is  that  into  two  parts, 
determined  by  new  moon  and  full  moon  (Cambodia,  Siam  ;  cf.  the 
Mexican  period  of  thirteen  days).    The  division  into  three  periods 

1  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  2S8,  354. 

2  For  details  see  Frazer,  Adonis  Attis  Osiris,  bk.  iii,  chap,  viii  f. 

3  Hollis,  The  Nandi,  p.  95  f. 

4  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhism  (in  Non-Christian  Religiotts  Systems),  p.  140  f.  Thus, 
as  the  author  remarks,  uposatha  is  a  weekly  festival ;  and  there  is  an  approach  to  a 
true  seven-day  week.  5  Alexander,  Short  History  of  the  Hawaiian  People. 

c  Details  of  the  week  are  given  in  the  article  "  Calendar"  in  Hastings,  Encyclope- 
dia of  Religion  and  Ethics,  with  references  to  authorities. 


TO  TEMISM  AND  TA BOO  2  5  I 

of  ten  days  each  (Egypt,  Greece,  Annam,  Japan)  ignores  lunar 
phases  and  seeks  a  convenient  and  symmetrical  arrangement. 
With  this  decimal  system  is  perhaps  connected  the  division  of  the 
month  into  six  periods  of  five  days  each  (Yoruba,  Java,  Sumatra, 
and  perhaps  Babylonia).  The  Romans  had  a  somewhat  irregular 
official  division  of  the  first  half  of  the  month  into  three  parts 
(Kalends,  Nones,  Ides)  corresponding  in  a  general  way  to  lunar 
phases,  and  also  commercial  periods  of  eight  days  (nundznae), 
perhaps  of  similar  origin.  A  seven-day  division  is  found  in 
Ashantiland  (and  perhaps  in  Peru),  and  in  Java  there  is  reported 
a  division  of  a  year  into  thirty  periods  of  seven  days  each. 

607.  It  appears,  then,  that  in  several  communities  there  has  been 
a  division  of  the  month  in  the  interests  of  convenience,  without 
regard  to  lunar  phases  ;  that  in  several  cases  a  seven-day  week  has 
been  fallen  upon  ;  and  that  of  the  phases  of  the  moon  new  moon 
and  full  moon  have  been  most  frequently  looked  to  as  chronological 
marks.  The  new  moon,  apart  from  its  function  of  indicating  the 
beginning  of  the.  lunar  month,  has  also  by  many  tribes  been  hailed 
with  joy  as  a  friend  restored  to  life  after  seeming  extinction.1  The 
full  moon,  while  it  has  not  entered  so  intimately  into  the  emotional 
life  of  man,  has  played  an  important  part  by  marking  the  division 
of  the  month  into  two  equal  parts. 

608.  The  Hebrew  sabbath.  Taboo  days  are  days  of  abstinence 
from  work,  set  apart  as  seasons  of  rest.2  Such  was  the  original 
form  of  the  Hebrew  sabbath  —  it  -is  described  in  the  earlier  Old 
Testament  notices  simply- as  a  day  on  which  ordinary  work  was 
unlawful.3  The  history  of  its  precise  origin  and  development  is, 
however,  by  no  means  clear.    Theories  that  derive  it  from  the  cult 

1  Hollis,  The  Alandi,  p.  79  ;  Frazer,  Adonis  Atlis  Osiris,  pp.  370  ff.,  375. 

2  See  the  noteworthy  Voruban  rest  day,  the  first  day  of  the  five-day  week  (A.  B. 
Ellis,  Yoruba). 

3  For  the  literature  on  the  sabbath  see  Herzog-Hauck,  Real-Encyklopddie  ;  Jastrow, 
in  American  Journal  of  Theology  for  1898  ;  Cheyne,  Encyclopedia  Biblica  ;  Hastings, 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible  ;  Jewish  Encyclopedia  ;  F.  Bohn,  Dcr  Sabbat  im  A  It  en  Testa- 
ment ;  Bcnzinger,  Hcbrdischc  Archdologie  ;  Nowack,  Ilebrdische  Arch'dologie  ;  C.  H. 
Toy,  ''The  Earliest  Form  of  the  Sabbath,''  in  Journal  of Biblical  Literature  for  1899 
(in  which,  so  far  as  appears,  the  view  that  the  Hebrew  sabbath  is  a  taboo  day  is  stated 
for  the  first  time). 


TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

of  some  particular  deity  or  regard  it  as  primarily  a  day  for  placating 
a  supernatural  Power x  may  be  set  aside.  It  may  be  assumed  that 
it  is  an  early  institution  somehow  connected  with  the  moon,  and 
a  definite  indication  of  origin  appears  to  be  furnished  by  the  fact 
that  in  a  Babylonian  inscription  the  term  shabattu'1  is  used  for  the 
full  moon.  The  identification  of  Hebrew  sabbath  with  full  moon 
is  favored  by  the  collocation  of  new  moon  and  sabbath  in  early  Old 
Testament  documents 3  as  days  on  which  trading  was  unlawful. 
These,  obviously,  were  the  two  chief  taboo  days  of  the  month  ;  the 
fact  that  new  moon  stands  first  is  doubtless  due  to  its  position  in 
the  month. 

609.  It  is  uncertain  whether  the  Babylonian  full-moon  day  was 
ritually  particularly  important,  and  it  is  not  clear  how  the  Hebrews 
came  to  invest  this  day,  if  it  was  their  sabbath,  with  peculiar  signif- 
icance. In  the  earlier  legal  documents  it  is  merely  a  restrictive 
period  —  man  and  beast  are  to  rest  from  toil ; 4  in  later  codes  reli- 
gious motives  for  the  observance  of  the  day  are  introduced  —  first, 
gratitude  to  Yahweh  for  the  rescue  of  the  nation  from  Egyptian 
bondage,  and  then  respect  for  the  fact  that  Yahweh  worked  in 
creating  the  world  six  days  and  stopped  work  on  the  seventh  day.5 
In  the  sixth  century  we  find  the  sabbath  elevated  to  the  position 
of  specific  sign  of  Yahweh's  protective  relation  to  the  people,  and 
still  later  it  is  regarded  as  a  day  of  joyous  obedience  to  divine  law.6 
Thus,  the  process  of  moralization  of  the  day  was  probably  a  long- 
continued  one.7 


1  Any  taboo  day  might  be  the  occasion  of  placative  ceremonies ;  but  this  is  not  a 
distinctive  feature  of  the  day. 

2  T.  G.  Pinches,  in  Proceedings  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archeology,  xxvi,  51  ff . ; 
Zimmern,  in  Zcitschrift  dcr  dcutscJien  morgenl'dndischen  Gesellschaft,  lviii,  199  ff., 
458  ff. ;  J.  Meinhold,  Sabbat  and  Woche  im  Altai  Testament.  There  is  no  good 
reason  to  doubt  that  this  Babylonian  term  is  formally  identical  with  Hebrew  shabat. 

3  2  Kings  iv,  23  ;  Amos  viii,  5  ;  Isa.  i,  13.  4  Exod.  xxiii,  6. 

5  Deut.  v,  12  ff. ;  Exod.  xx,  8  ff. ;  the  term  '  holy '  here  means  set  apart  ritually, 
that  is,  taboo. 

6  Ezek.  xx,  12  f.,  16,  20  f.,  24;  Isa.  lviii,  13  f . ;  cf.  article  "Sabbath"  in  Jewish 
Encyclopedia. 

7  The  Hebrew  stem  shabat  means  'to  cease,'  a  signification  that  accords  well 
with  the  character  of  a  taboo  day.  But  this  sense  has  not  been  certainly  found  for 
the  Babylonian  stem,  and  the  original  force  of  the  term  sabbath  may  be  left  undecided. 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO  253 

610.  In  the  various  experimental  divisions  of  the  month,  as  we 
have  seen,  a  week  of  seven  days  has  been  approached  independ- 
ently in  several  places  (Babylonia,  Hawaii,  Java,  Ashantiland).  The 
basis  of  this  division  is  doubtless  the  quartering  of  the  lunation, 
and  it  has  been  reenforced,  probably,  by  considerations  of  conven- 
ience —  seven  is  an  intermediate  number,  six  days  of  work  and 
one  of  abstinence  and  rest  (holiday)  commends  itself  as  a  practical 
arrangement.  It  appears  among  the  Hebrews  as  early  as  the  eighth 
century  B.C. ; 1  it  may  have  been  derived  from  or  suggested  by 
Babylonian  usage,  or  it  may  have  been  an  ancient  Hebrew  custom 
—  data  on  this  point  are  lacking.  In  any  case  the  Jewish  genius 
for  religious  organization  seized  on  the  seven-day  scheme  and  wove 
it  into  the  system  of  worship.  A  more  important  step  taken  by 
the  Jews  was  the  ignoring  of  lunar  phases  (except,  of  course,  new 
moon  as  the  beginning  of  the  month)  and  reckoning  the  week  and 
the  seventh  day  (the  sabbath)  in  a  continuous  line.  We  have  noted 
cases  in  which  lunar  phases  were  ignored,  but  this  Jewish  arrange- 
ment appears  to  be  unique,  and  its  simplicity  and  convenience  have 
commended  it  to  the  world. 

611.  Lucky  and  unlucky  days.  The  malefic  influences  ema- 
nating from  various  objects  and  resident  in  the  air  attached  them- 
selves to  certain  days,  and  out  of  the  vast  mass  of  experiences  in 
every  community  there  grew  up  systems  of  days  when  things  might 
or  might  not  be  done  with  safety  and  advantage.  There  were  the 
great  occasions,  economic  and  astronomical,  referred  to  above,  and 
there  were  particular  occurrences,  such  as  a  death  or  a  defeat,  that 
stamped  a  day  as  unlucky.  There  are  many  such  beliefs,  the  origin 
of  which  is  lost  in  a  remote  antiquity.  The  ancient  civilized  nations 
had  their  codes  of  luck.  Egypt  had  a  long  list  of  unlucky  days.2 
In  Babylonia  onerous  restrictions  were  imposed  on  kings,  seers, 
and  physicians  on  certain  days  (the  7th,  14th,  19th,  21st,  28th) 
of  the  sixth  and  eighth  months3  (and  perhaps  of  other  months). 


1  Exod.  xxiii,  12. 

2  Chabas,   Le   calendrier  des  jours  fastcs  et  nefastes :    Maspero,  Etudes    egyp- 
tiennes,  i,  28  ff.  :  Wiedemann.  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  chap.  x. 

3  IV  Rawlinson,  plates,  32  f. ;  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  373  ff. 


254     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

A  brief  list  of  days  favorable  and  unfavorable  to  work  is  given  by 
Hesiod.1  The  Roman  dies  ticfasti,  properly  '  irreligious  days,'  were 
inauspicious,  unlucky.2  Similar  lists  of  lucky  and  unlucky  days  are 
found  among  existing  tribes,3  and  the  popular  luck  codes  in  Chris- 
tian communities  are  numerous  and  elaborate.4  These  have  done, 
and  still  do,  great  harm  by  substituting  irrational  for  rational  rules 
of  conduct. 

612.  In  many  of  the  cases  cited  above  and  in  many  totemistic 
regulations  there  are  prohibitions  of  particular  sorts  of  food.  Such 
prohibitions,  very  numerous,  are  found  in  all  grades  of  civilization.5 
They  have  arisen  from  various  causes  —  climatic  conditions, 
hygienic  beliefs,  religious  conceptions  (as,  for  example,  the  recog- 
nition of  the  sacred  character  of  certain  animals,  and  the  connec- 
tion of  certain  foods  with  supernatural  beings  and  ceremonies  6), 
sometimes,  perhaps,  from  accidental  experiences ;  the  history  of 
most  of  the  particular  usages  escapes  us.  The  fundamental  prin- 
ciple involved  is  the  identity  of  the  food  with  him  who  eats  it  — 
when  it  is  charged  with  supernatural  power  (by  its  own  sacred- 
ness,  or  by  its  connection  with  a  sacred  person,  or  by  ecclesiastical 
decree)  it  becomes  malefic  to  an  unauthorized  person  who  par- 
takes of  it. 

613.  A  peculiar  form  of  prohibition  of  foods  appears  when  a 
society  is  divided  into  groups  that  are  kept  apart  from  one  another 
by  social  and  religious  traditions  that  have  hardened  into  civic  rules. 
In  such  cases  the  diet  of  every  group  may  be  regulated  by  law, 
and  it  may  become  dangerous  and  abhorrent  for  a  superior  to  eat 
what  has  been  touched  by  an  inferior.    The  best  example  of  this 


1  Hesiod,  Works  and  Days,  763  ff. 

2  Wissowa,  Religion  dcr  R'omcr,  p.  365  ff. ;  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  Index.  The 
Romans,  with  their  thoroughness  where  public  religion  was  concerned,  divided  all 
the  days  of  the  year  into  the  three  classes,  dies  f est i  (festive,  for  worship),  dies  pro- 
festi  (for  ordinary  business),  and  dies  intcrcisi  (mixed,  partly  for  religion,  partly  for 
ordinary  affairs). 

3  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  iii,  29  (Burma). 

4  J.  H.  King,  The  Supernatural,  Index,  s.v.  Luck. 

5  Many  examples  are  given  in  Westermarck's  Origin  and  Development  of  the 
Moral  Ideas,  chap,  xxxvii  f . ;  cf.  above,  §  204  ff .,  on  fasting. 

6  Howitt,  Native  Tribes  of  South-East  Australia,  p.  630  ff. 


TOTEM  ISM  AND  TABOO  2$$ 

sort  of  organization  is  the  Hindu  system  of  castes,  which  has  a 
marked  and  unhappy  effect  on  the  life  of  the  people.1  All  such 
'arbitrary  social  divisions  yield  gradually  to  the  influence  of  educa- 
tion and  civic  freedom,  and  this  appears  to  be  the  tendency  in 
India  at  the  present  day. 

614.  Punish  incut  of  violation  of  taboo.  Where  the  hostile  power 
is  inherent  in  an  object,  punishment  is  supposed  to  follow  violation 
automatically  —  through  contact  the  malefic  influence  passes  into 
the  man's  body  and  works  destruction.  Many  experiences  seem 
to  the  savage  to  establish  the  certainty  of  such  a  result.  Fervid 
belief,  moreover,  produced  by  long  tradition,  acts  powerfully  on 
the  imagination,  and  in  taboo-ridden  communities  thus  often  brings 
about  the  bodily  ill  called  for  by  the  theory :  a  man  who  ate  of 
food  that  he  found  on  the  roadside,  learning  afterwards  that  it 
belonged  to  a  chief,  fell  ill  and  died  in  a  few  hours.2  When  taboo 
regulations  have  been  taken  up  into  the  civil  law,3  punishment  for 
violations  is  inflicted  by  the  civil  authorities.  The  tendency  to 
make  taboo  a  part  of  the  civil  law,  and  to  subordinate  the  former 
to  the  latter,  increases  with  the  advance  of  knowledge  and  political 
organization ;  and  one  result  of  this  movement  is  that  great  per- 
sonages are  sometimes  permitted  to  violate  with  impunity  taboos 
imposed  by  inferiors.  The  native  theory  in  such  cases  doubtless, 
is  that  the  great  man's  mana  overcomes  the  taboo  infection  ;  but 
at  bottom,  we  may  surmise,  lies  the  sense  of  the  dominance  of 
civil  authority. 

615.  The  chief's  mana,  however,  sometimes  comes  into  play 
as  a  means  of  relief.  A  man  who  has  inadvertently  (or  perhaps, 
in  some  instances,  purposely)  violated  a  taboo  may  escape  punish- 
ment by  touching  some  part  of  a  chief's  body.  Here  the  innate 
potency  of  the  superior  man  expels  or  destroys  the  taboo  force  that 
has  entered  the  inferior — another  example  of  how  the  primitive  the- 
ory of  taboo  is  modified  by  conceptions  of  social  rank  and  authority. 

i  E.  A.  Gait,  article  "Caste"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  i,  321. 

3  Taboo  thus  helps  the  growth  of  civil  law  (especially  of  penal  codes)  by  its  col- 
lection of  offenses,  though  only  on  condition  of  retiring  from  the  field.  Cf.  Frazer, 
Psyche's  Task,  p.  17  ff. 


256     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

616.  Removal  of  taboo.  In  general,  magical  ceremonies  may  be 
employed  to  counteract  the  injurious  influence  resident  in  a  thing 
or  an  act,  or  to  destroy  the  evil  consequences  resulting  from  a 
violation  of  the  taboo  law.  For  this  purpose  sprinkling  with  water, 
bathing  in  water,  and  the  employment  of  charms  are  held  to  be 
effective.  Thus  in  the  old  Hebrew  code  the  taboo  resting  on  a 
house  supposed  to  be  infected  with  the  plague  is  removed  by 
sprinkling  the  house  with  water  and  the  blood  of  a  slain  bird,  and 
setting  free  a  second  bird  alive,  which  is  supposed  to  carry  the 
plague-power  off  with  it.1  A  woman  is  tabooed  forty  days  at  the 
birth  of  a  male  child,  and  eighty  days  at  the  birth  of  a  female  child  ; 
the  taboo  is  removed  by  a  holocaust  and  a  sin-offering.'2 

617.  A  general  taboo  regulation  may  be  set  aside  by  tribal 
agreement  in  the  interests  of  convenience  or  pleasure.  On  cer- 
tain occasions  the  restrictions  on  the  intercourse  of  the  sexes  are 
removed  for  a  brief  period,  at  the  expiration  of  which  the  pro- 
hibitory law  resumes  its  place.3  Many  special  ceremonies  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  world  have  to  do  with  modifications  of  marriage 
laws.4 

618.  Taboo  and  magic.  Reference  is  made  above  to  magical 
procedures  in  connection  with  taboo  customs.  Taboo  and  magic 
•have  a  common  basis  in  the  conception  of  an  occult  force  (which 

may  conveniently  be  called  mana)  resident  in  all  things,  but  they 
contemplate  different  sides  of  this  force,  and  their  social  develop- 
ments are  very  different.  Taboo  recognizes  the  inherent  malefic 
manifestations  of  the  force  (known  by  supposed  experience),  and 
avoids  them  ;  magic  uses  the  mana  energy  to  effect  results  impos- 
sible for  unaided  human  power.  In  taboo  man  feels  himself  to  be 
under  the  dominance  of  an  occult  law,  and  his  virtue  is  blind  obe- 
dience;  in  magic  he  feels  himself  to  be  the  master  of  a  great 
energy,  and  what  he  needs  is  knowledge.  Taboo  has  originated 
a  mass  of  irrational  rules  for  the  guidance  of  everyday  life ;  magic 

1  Lev.  xiv,  4S-53.  2  Lev.  xii. 

3  So  in  many  popular  festivals  ;  see  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central 
Australia;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  453  ff . ;  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Devel- 
opment of  the  Moral  Ideas,  chap.  xlii. 

4  Examples  are  given  in  Crawley's  Mystic  Rose,  pp.  223,  4S0  ff.,  chap,  x  ff. 


TOTEM  ISM  AND   TABOO  257 

has  grown  into  a  quasi-science,  with  an  organized  body  of  adepts, 
touching  religion  on  one  side  and  real  science  on  another  side. 

619.  A  closer  relationship  between  magic  and  taboo  has  been 
assumed  in  view  of  the  fact  that  both  rest  to  some  extent  on  the 
principle  of  the  association  of  ideas,  the  principle  that  like  proce- 
dures produce  like  results.  It  is  true  that  some  taboo  rules  depend 
on  this  conception : l  the  flesh  of  timid  animals  is  avoided,  that  of 
courageous  animals  is  eaten,  under  the  belief  that  the  man  partakes 
of  the  character  of  the  food  he  eats  ;  association  with  women  is 
sometimes  supposed  to  make  a  man  or  a  boy  effeminate.  It  is  to 
be  expected  that  in  the  immense  number  of  taboo  prohibitions  and 
precautions  some  should  be  found  in  which  the  association  of  ideas 
is  the  determining  factor.  But  for  the  majority  of  taboo  regula- 
tions this  explanation  does  not  hold.  In  the  economic  and  sexual 
taboos  mentioned  above,  in  the  dread  of  corpses,  in  the  fear  of 
touching  things  belonging  to  a  chief,  and  in  other  cases  there  are 
customs  that  can  only  be  referred  to  a  belief  in  an  injurious  potency 
residing  in  certain  objects.2  Practically,  savage  tribes  distinguish 
between  taboo  and  magic. 

620.  Contamination  of  customs  has  always  been  the  rule  in 
human  communities,  early  and  late,  savage  and  civilized.  We  have 
seen  how  there  has  often  been  a  coalescence  between  taboo  regu- 
lations proper  and  ordinary  civil  law.  To  state  the  case  more  fully, 
these  have  been  fused  into  a  unity  of  social  life  with  individual 
initiative,  magical  notions,  arbitrary  enactments.  The  actual  social 
constitution  even  of  slightly  developed  tribes  is  composite,  the  out- 
come of  long  experience  and  experiment  in  which  all  the  lines  of 
social  feeling  and  thought  have  gradually  drawn  together  and  been 
compacted  into  a  more  or  less  unitary  mass.  While  these  lines 
have  influenced  each  the  others,  it  is  possible,  to  a  considerable 

1  Tylor,  Early  Hislory  of  Mankind,  3d  ed.,  p.  129  ff . ;  Hubert  and  Mauss,  in 
Annee  sociologiqnc,  vii  ;  Frazer,  Early  History  of  the  Kingship,  lecture  ii,  especially 
p.  52  ff.  (he  defines  taboo  as  "negative  magic,"  magic,  that  is,  employed  to  avoid 
malefic  influences)  ;  cf.  Crawley,  The  Mystic  Rose,  chap,  ix,  for  the  transmission  of 
sex  characteristics. 

-  Cf.  R.  R.  Marett, ''  Is  Taboo  a  Negative  Magic  ?  "  (reply  to  Frazer),  in  Anthropo- 
logical Essays  presented  to  E.  B.  Tylor. 


258      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

extent,  to  distinguish  the  sphere  of  each.  Thus  we  can,  in  many 
cases,  see  where  ordinary  civil  law  comes  in  to  adopt,  modify,  or 
set  aside  taboo  rules,  and  so  we  can  generally  recognize  the  line  of 
demarcation  between  definite  taboo  and  the  conception  of  associ- 
ation of  ideas.  In  some  cases  the  explanations  offered  of  taboo 
customs  are  afterthoughts  —  imagined  hypotheses  to  account  for 
things  already  in  existence.1 

621.  The  despotism  exercised  by  taboo  systems  over  certain 
Polynesian  communities  is  one  of  the  extraordinary  facts  of  human 
history.  In  New  Zealand  and  Hawaii  the  restrictions  on  conduct 
were  so  numerous  and  were  carried  out  so  mercilessly  that  life 
under  these  conditions  would  seem  to  us  intolerable.'2  In  addition 
to  a  great  number  of  particular  prohibitions  and  to  the  constant  fear 
of  violating  the  sacredness  of  the  persons  of  chiefs  and  trenching 
on  their  prerogatives,  we  find  in  New  Zealand  the  amazing  rule 
that  on  the  occasion  of  a.  great  misfortune  (as  a  fire)  the  sufferer 
was  to  be  deprived  of  his  possessions  —  the  blow  that  fell  on  him 
was  held  to  affix  a  stigma  to  all  that  he  owned.  Besides  the  tra- 
ditional taboos  there  were  the  arbitrary  enactments  of  chiefs  which 
might  constantly  introduce  new  possibilities  of  suffering.  Yet  with 
all  this  the  people  managed  to  live  in  some  degree  of  comfort, 
somewhat  as  in  civilized  communities  life  goes  on  in  spite  of  earth- 
quakes, epidemics,  bank  failures,  the  injustices  of  law,  and  the 
tyranny  of  the  powerful. 

622.  The  duration  of  certain  taboo  periods  among  various  peoples 
in  various  ages  has  varied  greatly.  Taboos  relating  to  foods,  chiefs, 
and  the  intercourse  of  the  sexes  are  usually  permanent  everyday 
customs ;  those  that  relate  to  economic  procedures  are  in  force 
for  the  time  demanded  by  each  industry.  In  Hawaii  the  catch- 
ing of  certain  species  of  fish  was  forbidden  for  half  the  year,  and 
the  Borneo  harvest  taboo  (carrying  prohibition  of  other  work) 
lasts  sometimes  for  weeks.  There  is  mention  in  a  Maori  legend 
of  a  taboo  of  three  years.3    According  to  the  later  Hebrew  law,  in 

1  Cf.  Marett,  op.  cit. 

2  R.  Taylor,  New  Zealand,  chap,  viii ;  Alexander,  Short  History  of  the  Hawaiian 
People.  *  Shortland,  Maori  Religion. 


TOTEMISM  AND  TABOO 


259 


every  seventh  year  all  agricultural  operations  ceased.1  A  portent 
may  demand  a  long  period  of  restriction,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Roman  nine-day  ceremony  (novendiales  feriae)?  As  has  been  re- 
marked above,  economic  taboos  are  often  dictated  by  convenience 
—  they  are  prudential  rules  to  which  a  supernatural  sanction  has 
been  attached. 

623.  Diffusion  of  taboo.  Polynesia,  particularly  New  Zealand 
and  Hawaii,  is  the  special  home  of  taboo  —  the  only  region  in 
which  it  is  known  to  have  taken  the  form  of  a  well-compacted, 
all-embracing  system.  It  exists  in  Melanesia,  but  it  is  there  less 
complicated  and  general,3  and  the  same  thing  is  true  of  British 
New  Guinea.4  In  parts  of  Borneo  it  is  found  in  modified  form  : 
there  are  two  sorts  of  taboo,  one,  called  mali,  absolutely  forbidding 
work  on  certain  occasions,  the  other,  called  penti,  allowing  work  if 
it  is  begun  by  a  person  not  penti ;  before  the  birth  of  a  child  the 
latter  form  of  taboo  rests  on  both  parents.5  The  Land  Dyaks 
have  their  lali  days  and  the  Sea  Dyaks  their  pemate?  these  terms 
being  the  equivalents  of  taboo. 

624.  Though  there  is  no  proof  of  the  existence  of  all-pervading 
taboo  systems  among  the  peoples  of  Asia  and  America,  there  are 
notices  of  taboo  regulations  in  particular  cases  in  these  regions.  At 
the  birth  of  a  child  the  Hindu  father  was  subject  to  certain  restric- 
tions along  with  the  mother,  and  his  taboo  was  removed  by  bath- 
ing.7 Among  the  Sioux  Indians  on  the  death  of  a  child  the  father 
is  taboo  for  a  period  of  six  months  or  a  year.8  In  West  African 
Calabar  there  are  taboos  (called  ibef)  on  individuals,  connected 
with  spirits,  the  guardians  of  children.9  In  Assam  economic  and 
other  taboos  are  elaborate  and  well  organized.10   Such  observances, 

1  Exod.  xxiii,  10  f.  2  Livy,  i,  31. 

3  Codrington,  The  Melanesians,  p.  215  ff. ;  George  Brown,  Mclanesians  and  Poly- 
nesians, p.  273  ff. 

4  Seligmann,  The  Mclanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  Index,  s.v.  Taboo. 

5  H.  Ling  Roth,  The  Natives  of  Sarawak  and  British  North  Borneo,  i,  98. 

6  On  permontong  see  W.  II.  Furness,  3d,  Home  Life  of  the  Borneo  Head-hunters, 
p.  160  ff.  "  Manu,  v,  62.  8  Miss  Alice  Fletcher,  Indian  Ceremonies,  p.  297  f. 

9  Miss  Maty  Kingsley,  Travels,  Index. 

10  T.  C.  Hodson,  "  Genna  amongst  the  Tribes  of  Assam,"  in  Journal  of  the  An- 
thropological Institute,  xxxvi  (1906). 


260     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIOXS 

in  connection  with  death,  are  found  among  the  Kafirs1  and  the 
Eskimo.2 

625.  For  the  ancient  civilized  peoples  there  is  no  proof  of  the 
existence  of  general  taboo  systems.  Various  particular  prohibitions, 
involving  a  sense  of  danger  in  certain  things,  are  mentioned  above  ; 
they  relate  chiefly  to  corpses,  to  infected  houses,  to  women  in  con- 
nection with  menstruation  and  childbirth,3  to  certain  official  persons 
(as  the  Roman  flamen  dialis).  There  are  also  the  lists  of  unlucky 
days  (Egyptian,  Babylonian,  Greek,  Roman).  The  origin  of  food 
prohibitions  (Hebrew,  Pythagorean)  is  uncertain  ; 4  they  may  have 
arisen,  as  is  suggested  above,  from  general  regard  for  sacred  animals 
and  plants,  or  from  totemistic  relations,  or  from  other  conditions 
unknown  to  us ;  the  Hebrew  lists  of  forbidden  animals  may  have 
been  gradually  expanded  under  the  guidance  o*f  antagonism  to  sur- 
rounding non-Yahwistic  cults.  Whether  the  ancient  taboo  usages 
are  the  remains  of  older  more  extensive  systems  or  represent  the 
extreme  point  to  which  tabooism  was  carried  by  the  communities 
in  question  the  data  do  not  enable  us  to  decide. 

626.  In  various  places,  outside  of  the  Polynesian  area,  we  find 
terms  that  bear  a  more  or  less  close  resemblance  in  signification 
to  taboo.5  Melanesian  tanibu  is  that  which  has  a  sacred  character.6 
The  Borneo  terms  (lali,  pemate,  mail,  penti)  are  mentioned  just 
above,  and  there  is  the  pomali  of  Timor  (in  the  Malayan  Archi- 
pelago). The  Malagasy  fady  is  defined  as  'dangerous,  prohibited.' 7 
In  Gabun  (West  Africa)  orunda  is  said  to  mean  'prohibited  to 
human  beings.' 8  The  Hebrew  tame  is  used  of  things  dangerous, 
not   to  be   touched,   ritually  defiling,9   and   this   sense   sometimes 


1  Kidd,  The  Essential  Kafir,  Index. 

2  Boas,  in  Sixth  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  American  Ethnology,  and 
Bulletin  XV,  American  Museum  of  Natural  History.  3  Lev.  xii-xv. 

4  Deut.  xiv ;  Lev.  xi ;  Diogenes  Laertius,  Pythagoras,  xvii. 

5  On  tabu  (or  tapu)  see  E.  Tregear,  Maori-Polynesian  Comparative  Dictionary ; 
W.  Ellis,  Polynesian  Researches,  iv,  385.  6  Codrington,  The  Melancsians,  p.  215. 

7  A.  van  Gennep,  Tabou  ct  totemisme  h  Madagascar. 

8  R.  H.  Nassau,  Fctichism  in  West  Africa,^.  211. 

9  The  taboo  sense  proper  is  not  found  in  Greek  ayios  (ayos),  evayrjs,  and  Latin 
sacer,  which  rather  mean  what  is  accursed,  detestable  on  account  of  wrong  com- 
mitted. 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  261 

attaches  to  the  term  qadosh  (rendered  in  the  English  version  by 
'holy'),  which  involves  the  presence  of  a  supernatural  (and  there- 
fore dangerous)  quality.1 

627.  From  all  the  facts  known  it  may  be  concluded  that  the 
conception  of  taboo  exists  or  has  existed  in  some  form  in  a  great 
part  of  the  world,2  though  its  development  has  differed  greatly  in 
different  regions.  In  general  its  prevalence  appears  to  have  been 
in  inverse  proportion  to  that  of  totemism  —  it  is  lacking  or  feeble 
in  the  chief  totemic  centers,  Australia  and  North  America,  and 
strongest  in  Polynesia,  where  totemism  is  hardly  recognizable.  It 
may  be  said  that,  while  totemism  appears  in  those  forms  of  social 
life  that  have  been  created  by  hunting  communities,3  taboo  is  the 
product  of  more  settled  societies,  in  which  agriculture  plays  an 
important  part.  But  while  this  is  true,  at  least  in  a  general  way, 
we  are  not  able  to  trace  all  the  influences  that  have  determined 
the  development  of  totemism  and  taboo  ;  some  of  these  are  lost 
in  the  obscurity  of  the  remote  past,  and,  unfortunately  for  pur- 
poses of  investigation,  both  taboo  and  totemism,  as  we  now  meet 
them  in  actual  operation,  are  in  process  of  decay.  Why,  for  instance, 
taboo  has  flourished  in  Hawaii  with  its  fishing  industries  and  has 
not  flourished  in  certain  half-civilized,  partly  agricultural  North 
American  tribes  we  are  unable  to  explain  precisely.  We  may  fall 
back  on  the  vague  statement  that  every  community  has  accom- 
plished that  for  which  its  genius  fitted  it,  but  how  the  genius  of 
any  one  people  has  fitted  it  for  this  or  that  particular  task  it  is 
not  always  possible  to  say. 

628.  The  disappearance  of  the  taboo  system  in  civilized  nations  is 
to  be  referred  to  the  general  advance  in  intelligence  and  morality. 
Usually  this  movement  is  a  gradual  and  silent  one,  marked  by 
a  quiet  dropping  of  usages  as  they  come  to  be  held  unnecessary 
or  oppressive.  Sometimes  a  bold  individual  rebels  against  the 
established  custom  and  successfully  introduces  a  new  era :  thus 

1  Sacred  books  "  defile  the  hands." 

2  Cf.  articles  "Taboo"  in  Encyclopaedia  Briiannica,  9th  ed.  (by  Frazer)  and  11th 
ed.  (by  Thomas). 

3  The  relation  between  totemism  and  man's  attitude  toward  beasts  and  plants  is 
discussed  above,  §§  524  ff.,  564  ff. 


262      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

in  Yoruba,  under  an  old  custom,  when  a  king  died  his  eldest  son 
was  obliged  to  commit  suicide  ;  this  custom  was  set  at  defiance  by 
a  certain  Adelu  in  i860,  and  has  not  since  been  observed.1  All  the 
influences  that  tend  to  broaden  thought  go  to  displace  taboo.  The 
growth  of  clans  into  tribes,  the  promotion  of  voluntary  organiza- 
tions, secret  societies,  which  displace  the  old  totemistic  groups,  the 
growth  of  agriculture  and  of  commercial  relations — all  things,  in  a 
word,  that  tend  to  make  the  individual  prominent  and  to  further 
family  life  lead  naturally  to  the  abrogation  of  oppressive  taboos. 
629.  Doubtless  also  among  lower  tribes  intercourse  with  higher 
communities  has  had  the  same  result.  One  of  the  most  remarkable 
episodes  in  the  history  of  taboo  is  its  complete  overthrow  in  the 
Hawaiian  Islands  in  the  year  18 19  by  a  popular  movement.'2  The 
movement  was  begun  by  members  of  the  royal  family,  particularly 
by  one  of  the  queens,  and  was  eagerly  followed  by  almost  the 
whole  population  —  the  result  was  the  final  overthrow  of  the  sys- 
tem. This  was  before  the  arrival  of  Christian  missionaries;  but 
as  foreigners  had  visited  the  islands  many  years  before  (Captain 
Cook  first  came  in  1778),  it  is  possible  that  the  suggestion  of  the 
reform  came  from  observation  of  the  fact  that  the  taboos  were 
disregarded  by  those  men  without  evil  effects.  In  any  case  it  was 
the  acceptance  of  better  ideas  by  the  people  that  led  to  the  rev- 
olutionary movement. 

630.  Role  of  taboo  in  the  history  of  religion.  The  relation  of 
taboo  to  morality  and  religion  and  to  the  general  organization  of 
society  appears  from  the  facts  stated  above.  It  has  created  neither 
the  sense  of  obligation  nor  the  determination  of  what  is  right  or 
wrong  in  conduct.    The  sense  of  obligation  is  coeval  with  human 

society man,  at  the  moment  when  he  became  man,  was  already 

potentially  a  moral  being  (and  a  religious  being  as  well).3  His  ex- 
perience of  life  induced  rules  of  conduct,  and  these,  with  the  con- 
currence of  some  hardly  definable  instincts,  became  imperative  for 


1  A.  B.  Ellis,  Yoruba,  p.  167. 

2  Alexander,  Short  History  of  the  Hawaiian  People,  chap.  xxii. 

3  On  the  question  whether  a  germinal  sense  of  moral  obligation  is  found  in  the 
lower  animals  see  above,  §  12. 


TOTEMISM  AND   TABOO  263 

him  —  the  conception  involved  in  the  word 'ought5  gradually  took 
shape.  The  practical  content  of  the  conception  was  determined  by 
all  sorts  of  experience ;  the  decisive  consideration  was  whether  or 
not  a  given  thing  was  advantageous.  The  belief  arose  that  certain 
disadvantageous  things  were  to  be  referred  to  extrahuman  influ- 
ences, and  such  things  were  of  course  to  be  avoided  —  this  belief 
produced  the  taboo  system. 

631.  The  prohibitions  of  morality  sprang  from  social  relations 
with  human  beings,  the  prohibitions  of  taboo  from  social  relations 
with  superhuman  beings  —  duties  to  both  classes  of  beings  were 
defined  by  experience.  The  rule  "  thou  shalt  not  kill  thy  clansman" 
was  a  necessity  of  human  society ;  the  rule  "  thou  shalt  not  touch 
a  corpse  "  sprang  from  the  fear  of  a  superhuman,  malign,  death- 
dealing  Power.  Avoidance  of  poisonous  herbs  was  an  obligation 
founded  on  common  experience ;  avoidance  of  a  chief's  food  and 
certain  other  foods  arose  from  dread  of  offending  a  spirit  or  some 
occult  Power.  And  so  with  all  taboo  prescriptions  as  contrasted 
with  others  relating  to  conduct.1 

632.  Taboo  is  in  essence  religious,  not  moral.  In  so  far  as  it 
supplies  a  supernatural  sanction,  for  moral  conduct  proper  and 
maintains  rational  social  relations  (as  when  a  man's  wife  and  other 
property  are  made  taboo  to  all  but  himself),  it  is  often  beneficent. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  antimoral  when  it  elevates  to  the  rank  of 
duties  actions  that  have  no  basis  in  human  relations  or  are  in  any 
way  antagonistic  to  a  healthy  human  instinct  of  right.  This  it  has 
often  done,  and  there  has  accordingly  resulted  a  conflict  between 
it  and  morality  —  a  conflict  that  has  formed  no  small  part  of  the 
ethical  history  of  the  race,  its  echoes  remaining  to  the  present  day. 
In  all  religions  it  has  been  hard  to  bring  about  an  intelligent  har- 
mony between  the  moral  and  the  ritual.  Taboo  was  not  originallv 
irrational  —  it  sprang  from  the  belief  (rational  for  the  early  time) 
in  the  presence  of  the  supernatural  in  certain  objects,  and  this 
belief  was  held  to  be  supported  by  early  experience,  according  to 
which  it  seemed  that  violations  of  taboo  were  followed  by  sickness 

1  Naturally,  the  origin  of  all  the  particular  taboos  escapes  us ;  it  depends  in  most 
cases  on  unknown  conditions. 


264     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

or  death  or  other  misfortunes.    It  came  to  be  thought  irrational 
with  the  progress  of  knowledge  and  reflection. 

633.  Taboo,  being  a  religious  conception,  has  been  adopted  and 
fostered  by  all  popular  systems  of  religion.  It  has  been  set  aside 
not  by  religion  as  such  but  by  all  the  influences  that  have  tended 
to  rationalize  religion.  Religious  leaders  have  modified  it  so  far  as 
modification  has  been  demanded  by  public  opinion.  So  enlightened 
and  spiritualminded  a  man  as  the  apostle  Paul  declared  that  an 
Unworthy  participation  in  the  eucharistic  celebration  produced 
sickness  and  death.1  Innumerable  are  the  taboos  that  have  passed 
silently  into  oblivion. 

634.  Taboo,  then,  is  a  concomitant  of  man's  moral  life  that  has 
sometimes  opposed,  sometimes  coalesced  with  natural  morality. 
Like  all  widely  extending  institutions  it  has  tended  in  part  to  weld 
men  together ;  like  all  irrational  restrictions  it  has  tended  also  to 
hold  men  apart.  Like  all  positive  law  it  has  fostered  the  sense 
of  moral  obligation,  but  like  all  arbitrary  law  it  has  weakened  the 
power  of  intelligent  and  moral  obedience.  It  has  been  not  the 
guardian  of  morality,  but  a  temporary  form  (useful  in  a  primitive 
stage  of  society)  in  which  a  part  of  the  moral  law  expressed  itself. 
The  real  moral  force  of  society  has  been  sympathetic  social  inter- 
course, which,  under  the  guidance  of  an  implicit  moral  ideal,  has 
been  constantly  employed  in  trying  to  spiritualize  or  to  reject  those 
enactments  of  taboo  that  have  been  proved  by  experience,  obser- 
vation, and  reflection  to  be  injurious.2 

1  1  Cor.  xi,  27-30. 

2  On  the  social  organization  of  law  cf.  Darwin,  Descent  of  Man,  p.  108 ;  article 
"Aryan  Religion"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


CHAPTER  VI 

GODS 

635.  The  climax  of  the  organization  of  external  religion  appears 
in  the  conception  of  gods  proper ;  this  conception  is  always  asso- 
ciated with  more  or  less  well-developed  institutions.  Early  religious 
life  expresses  itself  in  ceremonies ;  the  god  is  the  embodiment  of 
man's  ideal  of  the  extrahuman  power  that  rules  the  world.  It  is 
not  always  easy  to  distinguish  the  true  gods  from  the  other  super- 
natural beings  with  which  early  man's  world  is  peopled.1  As  far 
as  concerns  power,  the  ghosts  and  the  spirits  appear  to  do  all  that 
the  gods  are  credited  with  doing ;  the  sphere  of  ghostly  action  is 
practically  unlimited,  and  the  spirit  that  dwells  in  a  spring,  in  a 
river,  or  in  a  mountain,  is  as  mighty  in  his  sphere  as  Indra  or  Apollo 
in  his  sphere  ;  the  difference  between  them  and  gods  is  a  difference 
of  intellectual  and  moral  culture  and  of  the  degree  of  naturaliza- 
tion in  a  human  society  —  a  god  might  be  defined  as  a  superhuman 
Being  fashioned  by  the  thought  of  a  civilized  people  (the  term 
1  civilized '  admitting,  however,  of  many  gradations).  Still,  gods 
proper  may  be  distinguished  from  other  Powers  by  certain  char- 
acteristics of  person  and  function.  Ghosts  are  shadowy  doubles  of 
human  beings,  sometimes  nameless,  wandering  about  without  defi- 
nite purpose  except  to  procure  food  for  themselves,  uncertain  of 
temper,  friendly  or  unfriendly  according  to  caprice  or  other  circum- 
stances, able  to  help  or  to  harm,  and  requiring  men  to  be  con- 
stantly on  the  alert  so  as  not  in  an  unguarded  moment  to  offend 
them.  Souls  of  recently  deceased  ancestors,  more  highly  organized 
ghosts,  conceived  of  also  as  attenuated  bodies,  have  powers  not 
essentially  different  from  those  of  the  simpler  ghosts,  but  are  dif- 
ferentiated from  these  in  function  by  their  intimate  relations  with 

1  See  above,  §  240  ff. 
265 


266     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  family  or  clan  to  which  they  belong,  and  by  their  more  definite 
human  nature  ;  they  are  as  a  rule  permanently  friendly,  are  capable 
of  definite  sympathetic  social  intercourse  with  living  men,  and  are 
sometimes  controllers  and  patrons,  hardly  to  be  distinguished  from 
local  or  departmental  gods.  Spirits  are  ethereal  beings  residing  in, 
or  closely  connected  with,  certain  objects  (trees,  rivers,  springs, 
stones,  mountains,  etc.),  sometimes  permanently  attached  to  these 
objects,  sometimes  detached  ;  roaming  about,  sometimes  kindly, 
more  generally  inimical,  authors  of  disease  and  death,  to  be  feared 
and  to  be  guarded  against,  but  sometimes  in  function  (though  not 
in  origin)  identical  with  ancestral  ghosts.  Totems,  in  their  developed 
form,  are  revered,  but  rarely  if  ever  worshiped.  The  term  '  animal- 
gods  '  may  mean  either  living  animals  regarded  as  divine,  or  animals 
believed  to  be  the  forms  assumed" by  gods ;  in  the  latter  case  they 
may  be  taken  to  be  real  gods  of  an  inferior  type. 

In  distinction  from  the  four  classes  of  Powers  just  mentioned, 
a  true  god  is  a  supernatural  being  with  distinct  anthropomorphic 
personality,  with  a  proper  name  or  a  distinctive  title,  exercising 
authority  over  a  certain  land  or  people  or  over  a  department  of 
nature  or  a  class' of  phenomena,  dwelling  generally  in  a  sanctuary 
on  the  earth,  or  in  the  sky,  or  in  the  other  world,  and  in  general 
sympathetic  with  men.  Gods  have  rational  human  qualities,  human 
modes  of  procedure,  and  are  human  beings  in  all  things  except 
power.1 

636.  The  god  appears  to  have  been  at  the  outset  a  well-formed 
anthropomorphic  being.  His  genesis  is  different  from  that  of  the 
ghost,  spirit,  ancestor,  or  totem.  These,  except  the  spirit,  are  all 
given  by  experience :  totems  are  familiar  objects  plainly  visible  to 
the. eye;  ghosts  and  ancestors  are  known  through  dreams  and  ap- 
pearances by  day,  and  by  tradition  ;  and  the  conception  of  the  spirit 
is  closely  allied  to  that  of  the  ghost,  though  it  is  in  part  a  scientific 
inference  rather  than  a  fact  of  experience.  In  distinction  from  these 
a  god  is  a  larger  product  of  imagination,  springing  from  the  neces- 
sity of  accounting  for  the  existence  of  things  in  a  relatively  refined 

1  In  a  cannibal  community,  for  example,  the  gods  will  be  cannibal;  see  A.  Lang, 
Myth,  Ritual,  ami  Religion,  new  ed.,  i,  6,  263  f. 


GODS  267 

way.  The  creator  is  a  beast  only  in  low  tribes,  and  in  process  of 
time,  if  the  tribe  continues  to  grow  in  culture,  is  absorbed  in  the 
cult  of  a  true  god.  It  is  rarely,  if  ever,  that  a  beast,  whether  a 
totem  or  only  a  sacred  thing,  becomes  a  god  proper. 

The  best  apparent  examples  of  such  a  growth  are  the  Egyptian 
bull  Apis,  who  had  his  temple  and  ministers,  the  Hindu  monkey- 
god  Hanuman,  and  the  divine  snake  of  the  Nagas  of  India.1  But, 
though  in  these  cases  the  beast  forms  receive  divine  worship,  it  is 
not  clear  whether  it  is  the  beast  that  is  worshiped  or  a  god  incar- 
nate in  the  beast ;  the  question  is  difficult,  the  data  being  meager. 
The  myths  in  which  gods  appear  in  beast  forms  do  not  prove  a 
development  of  the  former  out  of  the  latter.  It  is  not  necessary  to 
suppose  that  Zeus  was  once  a  bull,  Artemis  a  bear  or  a  sow,  Adonis 
a  boar,  and  Aphrodite  a  sow  or  a  dove.  The  myths  may  be  naturally 
explained  as  arising  from  the  coalescence  of  cults,  the  local  sacred 
beast  becoming  attached  to  a  local  deity  who  had  a  different  birth. 

The  god  is  a  figure  of  slow  growth.  Beginning  as  a  sort  of  head- 
man, identified  sometimes  with  an  ancestor,  sometimes  with  a  beast, 
his  character  is  shaped  by  all  the  influences  that  go  to  form  the 
tribal  life,  and  he  thus  embodies  from  generation  to  generation  the 
tribe's  ideals  of  virtue. 

637.  The  list  of  classes  of  supernatural  Powers  given  above 
must  be  regarded,  as  is  there  intimated,  as  a  general  one.  One 
class  appears  sometimes  to  shade  into  another;  in  the  theistic 
schemes  of  low  tribes  it  is  often  difficult  to  define  the  conceptions 
of  supernatural  beings  with  precision. 

Early  mythical  founders  of  culture.  Before  proceeding  to  a  con- 
sideration of  true  gods,  a  class  of  beings  must  be  mentioned  that 
appears  to  stand  on  the  borderland  between  divine  animals,  spirits, 
and  gods.  There  are  various  sorts  of  beings  that  appear  sometimes 
in  animal  form,  sometimes  in  human  form,  their  function  being  the 
arranging  of  the  affairs  of  the  world,  the  origination  of  institutions, 
and  sometimes  a  definite  creation  of  various  things.  The  title 
"  founders"  or  "  transformers  "  or  "  culture-heroes"  has  been  given 

1  Rawlinson,  History  of  Ancient  Egypt,  i,  414  f.;  ii,  85,  506;  Breasted,  History  of 
Egypt,  pp.  46,  575  ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  pp.  368,  502  ;  ibid.,  p.  538  f. 


268     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

them.  They  arise,  just  as  the  true  gods  do,  from  the  necessity  of 
accounting  for  the  beginnings  of  things,1  and,  from  a  comparison 
of  the  ideas  of  various  tribes,  a  certain  growth  in  the  conception 
may  be  recognized. 

638.  In  some  cases  the  figure  is  that  of  a  mere  trickster,  a  mis- 
chievous being,  the  hero  of  countless  stories,  who  acts  from  caprice 
or  malice,  though  his  actions  may  result  in  advantage  to  men. 
Such  are  many  of  the  animal  forms  of  the  North  American  Indians  : 
the  coyote  of  the  Thompson  River  Indians,2  the  raven  of  North 
British  Columbia,3  the  mink  and  the  blue  jay  of  the  North  Pacific 
Coast.4  In  other  cases,  as  also  to  some  extent  in  the  Thompson  River 
region,  he  appears  in  a  more  dignified  form  as  a  benevolent  organizer. 

This  growth  of  the  trickster  into  the  real  culture-hero  may  be 
referred  to  a  progress  in  thought  and  refinement.5  Among  the 
Northern  Maidu  of  California  there  is  a  sharp  distinction  between 
the  two  characters  :  the  coyote  is  tricky  and  mischievous  in  the  bad 
sense,  with  no  desire  to  do  anything  profitable  to  men  ;  the  benevo- 
lent and  useful  work  of  the  World  is  ascribed  to  a  personage  called 
"  the  creator,"  who  is  always  dignified  and  regardful  of  the  inter- 
ests of  man.6  This  sort  of  distinction,  intended  to  account  for  the 
presence  of  both  good  and  evil  elements  of  life,  is  found  in  inchoate 
form  among  other  low  peoples  (as,  for  example,  the  Masai  and  the 
Australians7),  but  reaches  its  full  proportions  only  in  the  great 
civilized  religions. 

i  They  sometimes  coalesce  in  functions  with  ghosts  and  spirits. 

2  Teit,  Thompson  River  Indians,  p.  19  ff. 

3  L.  Farrand,  "Traditions  of  the  Chilcotin  Indians  "  mjesup  North  Pacific  Expe- 
dition (vol.  ii  of  Memoirs  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History),  i,  14  ff . : 
Farrand  and  Kahnweiler,  "  Traditions  of  the  Quinault  Indians,"'  ibid.,  iii,  in;  Boas, 
hidianische  Sagcn,  p.  194  ff. ;  C.  Hill-Tout,  articles  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropological 
Institute,  vols,  xxxiv,  xxxv,  xxxvii. 

4  Boas,  Introduction  to  Teit's  Thompson  River  Indians,  p.  16,  and  "  Reports 
on  the  Indians  of  British  Columbia  "  in  Reports  of  the  British  Association  for  the 
.  Xdvakcement  of  Science,  vols,  lix,  lx,  lxi,  lxiv,  lxv.  A  tricksy  character  is  ascribed  to 
Loki  in  some  of  the  Norse  stories  (Saussaye,  Religion  of  the  Teutons,  p.  263).  Loki, 
however,  as  he  appears  in  the  literature,  is  a  highly  complex  figure. 

5  See  Boas's  Introduction  in  Teit's  Thompson  River  Indians. 

6  R.  B.  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  263. 

'  A.  C.  Hollis,  The  Masai,  p.  264  f. ;  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  1st  ed., 
ii,  4  f. 


GODS  269 

639.  In  this  class  of  vaguely  conceived  creators  or  transformers 
we  may  place  the  Central  Australian  Arunta  ancestors,  who  em- 
bodied the  idea  of  the  identity  of  beasts  and  human  beings,  and 
are  the  originators  of  all  the  arts  and  institutions  of  the  tribes; 
they  established  the  totemic  groups  and  the  ceremonies,  and,  in  the 
developed  myth,  perpetuate  their  existence  by  entering  the  bodies 
of  women  and  being  born  as  human  beings.1  The  relative  antiquity 
of  this  conception  of  the  origin  of  things  is  uncertain  ;  in  one  point 
of  view  it  is  crude,  but  in  another  it  is  an  elaborate  and  well-consid- 
ered attempt  to  explain  the  world.  These  Arunta  ancestors,  notwith- 
standing their  half-bestial  forms,  are  represented  as  acting  in  all 
regards  like  human  beings,  and  as  having  planned  a  complete 
system  of  tribal  organization,  but  no  religious  worship  is  offered 
them  —  they  figure  only  in  sociogonic  myths  and  in  the  determina- 
tion of  the  totemic  status  of  newborn  children.  Among  the  Navahos 
we  find  a  combination  of  beast  and  man  in  the  work  of  creation.2 
In  their  elaborate  cosmogonic  myth  the  first  actors  are  Coyote, 
First  Man,  and  First  Woman,  and  there  is  discord  between  Coyote 
and  his  human  coworkers.  Here  again  the  object  seems  to  be  to 
account  for  the  diverse  elements  of  the  tribal  life. 

640.  Many  such  personages,  originators  or  introducers  of  the  arts 
of  life  and  the  distribution  of  territory,  are  described  in  the  folk-tales 
and  myths  of  the  North  American  tribes.  The  conception,  it  may 
be  concluded,  existed  all  over  the  world,  though  for  many  com- 
munities the  details  have  not  yet  been  brought  to  light.3  A  note- 
worthy personage  of  this  class  is  the  Melanesian  Qat  (especially 
prominent  in  the  Banks  Islands),  a  being  credited  with  almost 
plenary  power,  the  creator  or  arranger  of  seasons,  the  introducer 
of  night,  therefore  an  important  cultural  power,  yet  mischievous, 
the  hero  of  numerous  folk-stories ;  he  does  not  appear  in  animal 
form  but  lives  an  ordinary  family  life.  He  is  not  worshiped  —  he 
is  regarded  rather  as  the  explanation  of  phenomena,  a  genuine 

1  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  123  ff. 

2  W.  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  pp.  69  ff.,  71  ff. 

3  See  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  World  and  American  Hero-Myths;  Jour- 
nal of  American  Folklore,  passim.  On  the  '  Hiawatha'  myth  sec  Hale.  Iroquois  Book 
of  Rites,  p.  iSoff.,  and  Beauchamp,  in  Journal of American  Folklore,  October,  1S91. 


270     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

product  of  early  cosmogonic  science.  He  appears  to  be  the  nearest 
approach  in  Melanesia  to  a  real  creator  (with  the  exception  perhaps 
of  a  somewhat  uncertain  female  being  called  Koevasi) ;  but  along- 
side of  him  stand  a  number  of  spirits  and  ancestral  ghosts  who 
play  an  important  part  in  the  organization  of  society.1  For  the 
Koryaks  of  Northeastern  Siberia  the  "  Big  Grandfather  "  is  an  ar- 
ranger of  all  things  out  of  preexisting  material ; 2  the  Chukchee,  on 
the  other  hand,  regard  as  creator  a  benevolent  being  residing  in 
the  zenith.  Vague  stories  of  similar  arrangers  are  found  among  the 
East  African  Nandi,  and  the  South  African  Zulus.3 

641.  Traces  of  this  function  of  organizing  society  appear  in  the 
mythical  figures  of  some  higher  religions.  Among  such  figures  may 
be  reckoned  the  Babylonian  Gilgamesh,  the  Old  Testament  Cain- 
ides,  the  Greek  Heracles,  Theseus,  Orpheus,  and  others.4  But 
these  personages  generally  take  on  human  form  and  are  treated  as 
factors  in  the  regular  social  development. 

642.  The  "  culture-hero'"  thus  seems  to  be  a  natural  product  of 
incipient  civilization.  He  represents  the  vague  feeling  that  the  insti- 
tutions of  society  arose  out  of  human  needs  and  that  the  origina- 
tion of  these  institutions  demanded  more  than  human  wisdom  and 
power.5  He  partakes  of  the  nature  of  both  men  and  gods  —  he  is 
all-powerful,  yet  a  creature  of  caprice  and  a  slave  of  accident.  To 
him  society  is  supposed  to  owe  an  incalculable  debt ;  but  his  mixed 
nature  affords  a  wide  field  for  bizarre  myths  and  folk-stories,  and 
he  of  necessity  gives  way  to  more  symmetrical  divine  figures. 

1  Codrington,  The  Melancsians,  pp.  28,  167,  and  Index,  s.v.  Qat. 

2  He  is  called  also  the  "  Big  Raven,"  belonging  under  this  title  in  the  cycle  of 
raven  myths  of  the  North  Pacific  Ocean  (both  in  Asia  and  in  America) ;  see  Jochel- 
son,  in  Jesup  North  Pacific  Expedition,  vi,  i,  17  f. 

3  Hollis,  The  Nandi,  p.  98  f. ;  Callaway,  The  Amazuln,  p.  1  ff. ;  cf.  the  Japanese 
mythical  emperor  Jimmu  (Knox,  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan,  pp.  46,  63). 

4  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  Index,  s.v.;  Gen.  iv  ;  articles  in 
Roscher's  Lcxikon,  s.vv. ;  Gruppe,  Gricchischc  Mythologic,  Index,  s.vv. 

5  It  is  noteworthy  that  among  the  numerous  ^etiological  myths  there  seems  to  be 
no  attempt  to  account  for  the  origin  of  language.  Language  was  thought  of  as  so 
simple  and  natural  a  thing  that  no  explanation  of  its  beginnings  was  necessary.  Adam, 
in  Gen.  ii,  is  able,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  give  names  to  the  animals.  In  early  myths 
beasts  have  the  power  of  speech.  In  a  Nandi  folk-story  (Hollis,  The  Nandi,  p.  113) 
what  excites  the  wonder  of  the  thunder  and  the  elephant  is  not  man's  capacity  of 
speech,  but  the  fact  that  he  can  turn  over  when  asleep  without  first  getting  up. 


GODS  271 

643.  The  god,  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  is  the  highest  gen- 
eralization of  the  constructive  religious  imagination.  In  his  simplest 
and  earliest  form  he  appears  as  a  venerable  supernatural  man,  wise 
according  to  the  wisdom  of  his  place  and  time  —  such  is  the  natural 
conception  of  the  lower  tribes.  His  position  is  described  by  the 
titles  "  the  old  one,"  "  the  father,"  "  the  grandfather  "  ; l  he  is  a 
superhuman  headman  or  chief,  caring  for  his  people,  giving  them 
what  they  need,  sharing  their  ethical  ideas  and  enforcing  their  ethical 
rules.  He  is  an  all-sufficient  local  ruler  or  overseer,  his  functions 
touching  the  whole  life  of  his  people  and  of  no  other  people.  In 
the  progress  of  myth-making  (that  is,  in  the  construction  of  early 
scientific  theology)  such  gods  are  not  infrequently  represented  as 
men  who  have  gone  up  to  the  sky ;  this  is  a  natural  way  of  ac- 
counting for  their  superterrestrial  abode.  Savage  conceptions  of 
the  origin  and  history  of  such  figures  are  usually  vague,  and  their 
theologies  fluctuating  and  self -con  tradictory ;  but  there  are  two 
points  as  to  which  opinion  is  firm  :  the  god  is  like  men  in  every- 
thing except  power,  and  his  functions  are  universal.  He  represents 
not  a  monotheistic  creed  (which  takes  the  whole  world  as  the  do- 
main of  God),  but  a  narrow  tribal  acceptance  of  the  sufficiency  of 
the  local  divine  patron.2 

Clan  Gods 

644.  The  character  just  described  is  that  of  the  earliest  known 
gods ;  it  is  embodied  in  certain  figures  found  in  various  parts  of 
the  world.  Such  divine  figures  belong  to  the  simplest  form  of 
social  organization,  the  clan  ;  it  is  in  the  clan  that  they  are  shaped, 
and  they  reflect  the  conceptions,  political  and  ethical,  of  the  clan. 
In  Southeast  Australia  the  personages  called  Daramulun,  Baiame, 
Bunjil,  correspond  to  this  description  :  they  are  supernatural  old 
men  who  have  always  existed ;  they  are  taken  for  granted  without 
inquiry  into  their  origin  ;  they  direct  the  affairs  of  the  tribe  in  a 

1  For  female  deities  the  title  "  grandmother"  occurs  (Batchelor,  The  Ainu  [1901], 
p.  57S).  The  devil's  grandmother  figures  in  Teutonic  folk-stories;  see  Journal  of 
American  Folklore,  xiii,  278  ff. ;  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  1st  ed.,  i,  336. 

2  Attempts  to  prove  a  primitive  monotheism  usually  fail  to  take  this  distinction 
into  account. 


272      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

general  way  in  accordance  with  the  moral  ideas  of  the  place  and 
time.1  The  Australians  have  other  beings  with  vaguely  expressed 
characters  and  functions,  but  our  information  regarding  these  is  so 
meager  that  it  is  not  possible  to  form  a  distinct  judgment  of  their 
character.  Similar  figures  are  the  Klamath  Indian  "  Old  Man  " 
and  the  Zulu  Unkulunkulu,  an  old  man,  the  father  of  the  people, 
only  dimly  understood  by  the  natives  who  have  been  questioned 
on  this  point ;  they  are  uncertain  whether  he  is  dead  or  alive,  but 
in  any  case  he  is  revered  as  a  great  personage.3 

645.  Other  such  deities  are  reported  in  South  Africa,  as  the 
Qamata  of  the  Xosa,  Morimo  of  the  Bakuana,  and  farther  north 
Molungu.4  On  the  West  Coast  also,  in  Ashanti,  Dahomi,  and 
Yoruba,  a  number  of  deities  exist  which  were  in  all  probability 
originally  local.5  Such  appears  to  be  the  character  of  certain  gods 
of  the  non-Aryan  tribes  of  India,  as  the  Kolarian  Sunthals  and 
Koles.6  Perhaps  also  the  god  Vetala  was  originally  such  a  local 
deity  with  the  savage  characteristics  proper  to  the  time  and  place, 
though  later  he  was  half  Brahmanized  and  became  a  fiend.7  Among 
the  Todas  every  clan  has  its  god,  who  was  the  creator  and  in- 
structor of  the  people.  The  large  number  of  gods  now  recognized 
by  the  various  Toda  communities  are  essentially  the  same  in  char- 
acter and  function,  and  the  existing  system  has  doubtless  been 
formed  by  the  coalition  of  the  clans.8  In  North  America  the 
Navahos  have  a  number  of  local  deities,  the  yd  (Zuni,  yeyi),  some 
of  which  are  called  by  terms  that  mean  '  venerable.'9  The  Koryak 
guardians  of  occupations  and  houses  may  be  of  the  nature  of  such 
objects  of  worship  in  the  clans,10  and  so  also  the  Patagonian  family- 
gods.  Cf.  the  Greek  kovPotP6<j>os.  In  Japan  the  early  system  of 
supernatural  beings  has  been  obscured  by  the  great  religions  of 

1  Howitt,  Native  Tribes  of  South-East  Australia,  p.  488  ff. 

2  Boas,  Introduction  to  Teit's  Thompson  River  Indians,  p.  7. 

3  Callaway,  The  Amazuhi,  p.  1  ff .  4  Kidd,  The  Essential  Kafir,  p.  101  ff. 

5  A.  B.  Ellis,   Tshi,  chaps,  v-vii ;  Ewe,   chap,  v;    Yornba,  chap.  iii.  Cf.  C.  Par- 
tridge, Cross  River  Natives  (South  Nigeria),  p.  282  ff. 

6  W.  Crooke,    The  Popular  Religion  and  Folklore  of  Northern    India    (1907), 
chap.  ii.  7  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  537  f. 

8  Rivers,  The  Todas,  chap.  xix.  9  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  35  ff. 

10  Jochelson,  in  Jesup  North  Pacific  Expedition,  vi,  i,  36-43. 


GODS  273 

the  later  time  — Shinto  in  its  developed  form,  and  Buddhism  - 

but  the  indications  are  that  the  general  term  kami,  a  designation 
of  all  supernatural  things,  included  local  deities.1 

646.  It  is  not  clear  how  early  the  practice  began  of  giving 
these  beings  proper  names.  In  the  lowest  known  tribes  we  meet 
descriptive  titles  such  as  "old  one,"  "grandfather,"  "grand- 
mother"; and  so  among  some  civilized  peoples,  as  the  Semites, 
whose  local  deities  are  often  known  simply  as  baah  Q  possessors,' 
Mortis"),  sometimes  as  lords  of  particular  places,  as,  for  example. 
the  Arabic  Dhu  ash-Shara  (Dusares),  '  lord  of  the  Shara.'  A  god 
identified  with  a  particular  object  may  be  called  by  its  name; 
so  '  Heaven  '  is  said  to  have  become  the  proper  name  of  a  Hu- 
ron deity  (cf.  Zeus,  Tien,  Shangti).2  Names  of  Pawnee  gods  are 
Bright  Star  (Evening  Star),  Great  Star  (Morning  Star),  Motion- 
less One  (North  Star),  and  many  other  such  ;  the  Navahos  have 
The  Woman  Who  Changes  (apparently  the  changing  year),  White 
Shell  Woman,  Child  of  Water;3  the  Kolarian  Sunthals,  Great 
Mountain  ; 4  the  Brazilian  Arawaks,  River-born.5  A  proper  name 
becomes  necessary  as  soon  as  definite  social  relations  with  a  god 
are  established.  Divine  names  in  civilized  religions,  of  remote 
origin,  are  often  inexplicable. 

647.  Among  the  simple  clan  gods  divinized  men  should  be 
included.  In  many  parts  of  the  world,  as  is  remarked  above, 
chiefs  and  other  great  personages  are  regarded  as  divine;  this 
attribution  of  divinity  is  a  part  of  that  general  early  conception 
according  to  which  there  was  an  element  of  power  in  all  things, 
naturally  embodied  in  a  special  way  in  important  men.  This  sort 
of  divinization  is  particularly  prominent  in  Melanesia  and  parts  of 
Polynesia ;  it  exists  also  in  Japan  and  in  West  Africa.  As  a  rule 
it  is  only  the  recently  dead  that  are  thus  regarded  as  divine  ob- 
jects of  worship,  and  the  cult  would  thus  be  substantially  a  part 
of  the  worship  of  ancestors  ;  but  such  divinized  men  frequently 

1  Aston,  Shinto,  Index,  s.v.  Kami]  Knox,  Religion  hi  Japan,  p.  27  ff. 

2  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii.  255  :  cf.  ii,  ^7- 

3  Dorsey,  The  Skidi  Pawnee,  p.  xix  :  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  34  f. 

4  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  532. 

5  Spence,  in  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia  of  Re  I've  ion  and  Ethics,  ii,  S35. 


274     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

bore  a  peculiarly  intimate  relation  to  the  clan  or  community  and 
became  specific  protectors.1  So  far  as  their  origin  is  concerned, 
this  class  of  divine  patrons  differs  essentially  from  the  old  clan 
god,  whose  genesis  probably  belongs  to  a  remote  antiquity  and  is 
based  on  the  general  consciousness  of  some  powerful  influence  in 
nature.'2 

648.  Clan  gods  are  found  abundantly  among  the  ancient  civi- 
lized peoples,  Egyptian,  Babylonian,  Canaanite,  Arabian,  Greek, 
Roman,  and  probably  existed  among  other  peoples  as  to  whom 
we  have  no  exact  information.  In  Old  Egypt  every  hamlet  had 
its  protecting  deity ;  these  continued  to  be  the  objects  of  popular 
worship  down  to  a  very  late  time,  the  form  of  the  deity  being 
usually  that  of  a  living  animal.3 

649.  A  similar  religious  constitution  obtained  among  the  old 
Semitic  peoples.  This  is  obvious  in  the  case  of  the  Canaanites 
(including  the  Phoenicians),  where  every  clan  or  community  had 
its  divine  lord  (the  Baal),  who  was  a  universal  deity  sufficient  for 
all  the  needs  of  the  living,  though  particularly  connected  with  the 
dominant  interests  of  his  people.4  Such,  probably,  was  the  original 
form  of  the  Hebrew  Yahweh  (Jehovah)  ;  in  his  Sinaitic  home  he 
was  naturally  connected  with  the  phenomena  of  desert  and  moun- 
tain, and  in  Canaan,  whither  the  Israelites  brought  his  cult,  he 
was  after  a  while  recognized  as  the  giver  of  crops  also,  and  grad- 
ually became  a  universal  god  in  the  larger  sense  of  the  term.5 
The  Phoenician  Baals  —  such  as  the  Tyrian  Melkart,  '  the  king  of 
the  city '  —  are  obviously  local  deities.6  The  same  thing  is  true 
of  the  various  gods  that  appear  in  pre-Mohammedan  Arabia ;  the 


i  A.  B.  Ellis,  Ewe  (Dahomi),  p.  104. 

2  On  the  ascription  of  divinity  to  men  in  great  civilized  religious  systems  see 
above,  §  35 1  ff. 

3  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civilization,  p.  120  ff.  ;  Ed.  Meyer,  Geschichte  dcs  Altcn 
.  Xegypiens,  p.  31  ff. ;  Wiedemann,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  109  ;  Erman, 
Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion,  pp.  21  f.,  39. 

4  Cf.  W\  von  Baudissin,  Studien  zur  semiiischen  Religionsgese/iielde,  i,  28  f. 

5  R.  Smend,  Alttestamentliche  Religionsgeschichte,  p.  ^  f.  In  regard  to  the  orig- 
inal home  of  Yahweh  and  the  diffusion  of  his  cult  among  other  peoples  than  the 
Hebrews  exact  information  is  lacking. 

6  Pietschmann,  Plwnizier,  pp.  170  f.,  182  ff. 


GODS  275 

deity  of  any  particular  clan  or  tribe  was  known  to  the  people  as 
"the  god"  (Arabic  Allah,  that  is,  al-Hahu),  and  the  title  "Allah," 
adopted  by  Mohammed  as  the  name  of  the  supreme  and  only  god, 
thus  in  so  far  fitted  in  with  the  usage  of  the  people.1 

650.  In  Babylonia  also  a  very  large  part  of  the  divine  names 
found  in  the  inscriptions  must  be  understood  to  refer  ultimately 
to  local  deities,  each  supreme  in  his  own  territory ;  the  later  theo- 
logians (probably  priests)  endeavored  to  organize  these  into  a  sort 
of  pantheon,  but  never  succeeded  in  differentiating  the  various 
deities  distinctly.  In  general  it  may  be  said  that  all  these  old 
Semitic  gods  had  one  and  the  same  character ;  each  in  his  place 
was  supreme,  and  it  is  difficult  to  find  any  difference  in  real  char- 
acter and  function  among  the  great  gods,  as  Ea,  Bel,  Marduk, 
Sin,  Shamash,  Ishtar,  Nabu,  Ashur,  Eshmun,  and  others.2 

651.  The  same  remark  will  probably  hold  good  of  the  popular 
worship  of  the  old  Greeks.  When  Pausanias  traveled  through 
Greece  he  found  everywhere  local  cults  which  bore  evidence  of 
primitiveness,  and  obviously  pertained  to  the  clan  gods  of  the 
various  regions.  In  many  cases  these  had  been  identified  with 
old  animal-gods  or  had  been  interwoven  into  the  general  later 
scheme  and  had  been  merged  with  the  great  gods  of  the  developed 
pantheon.3  The  functions  ascribed  to  various  deities  in  the  Veda 
suggest  a  similar  origin  for  them.  When  we  find  that  many  of 
them  are  credited  with  the  same  larger  or  smaller  acts  of  creation, 
protection,  or  blessing,  we  may  suspect  that  they  were  originally 
clan  gods  that  have  been  incorporated  in  the  great  theologic  sys- 
tem, and  that  "  henotheism  "  is  mainly  a  survival  from  this  earlier 
scheme  or  an  extension  of  it.4  Similar  local  gods  appear  in  Peru  5 
and  Mexico.6 

1  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  i,  664. 

2  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  Index,  s.vv.  ;  articles  in  Roschcr's 
Lexikon\  "Eshmun''  in  Orientalische  Studien  N'dldeke gewidmet. 

3  See,  for  example,  Pausanias,  i,  37,  3  (Zeus  Meilichios);  ii,  19,  3  (Apollo  Lykios); 
iii,  13,  2  (Kore  Soteira  —  Persephone,  the  protectress);  v,  25,  6  f.  (Heracles); 
viii,  12,  1  (Zeus  Charmon). 

4  Macdonell,  Vcdic  Mythology,  p.  15  ff.;   Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  p.  90. 

5  Sir  C.  R.  Markham,  The  Incas  of  Peru,  p.  104. 

6  L.  Spence,  The  Mythologies  of  Ancient  Mexico  and  Pern,  p.  24  f. 


276     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

652.  One  class  of  Greek  "heroes  "  may  be  considered  as  belonging 
in  the  category  of  clan  gods.1  When  the  hero  appears  to  be  origi- 
nally a  god  his  worship  is  identical  in  character  with  that  offered  to 
local  deities  ;  so  in  the  case  of  Achilles  and  many  others.2  Such  an 
one  is  often  a  divine  patron  of  a  definite  (usually  small)  territory, 
has  his  sacred  shrine  with  its  ministers,  and  his  specific  sacrificial 
cult.  A  trace  of  this  type  may  perhaps  be  recognized  in  Hesiod's 
"  half  gods,"  3  the  heroes  of  the  Trojan  war  and  others,  whom  he 
places  just  after  the  age  of  bronze  and  just  before  his  modern  age 
of  iron  ;  their  origin  is  thus  made  relatively  late,  as  was  natural  if 
they  descended  cultually  from  old  gods. 

653.  A  similar  view  appears  in  the  fact  that  a  hero  is  sometimes 
of  mixed  parentage  —  his  father  or  his  mother  is  divine :  a  local 
god,  standing  in  close  cultic  connection  with  a  greater  deity,  is 
easily  made  into  a  son  of  the  latter.  In  general,  in  the  popular 
worship  there  seems  to  be  no  distinction  between  old  heroes  and 
gods.   Where  such  a  hero  stood  in  close  relations  with  a  community 

—  if,  for  example,  as  was  sometimes  the  case,  he  was  the  patron 
or  tutelary  divinity  of  a  family,  or  a  mythical  ancestor  —  there  was 
doubtless  a  peculiar  tenderness  in  the  feeling  for  him.  But  his 
general  function  probably  was  simply  that  of  local  patron.4 

654 .  Clan  gods  are  specially  important  in  the  history  of  worship 

—  they  form  the  real  basis  of  the  great  theistic  development. 
Ghosts  and  spirits  continue  to  be  recognized  and  revered  or 
dreaded,  but  they  are  not  powerful  social  bonds  —  it  is  the  local 
deity  about  whose  person  organized  public  worship  grows  up,  and 
it  is  he  whose  functions  are  gradually  enlarged  till  he  becomes  a 
universal  god.  The  initial  forms  of  religion  are  everywhere  limited 
locally  and  intellectually ;  it  is  only  by  loyalty  to  the  home  as  a 
center  and  standing-place  that  man's  religious  affections  and  ideals 
have  expanded  so  as  to  embrace  the  world,  and  reach  a  high 
standard  of  ethical  purity  and  logical  consistency. 

1  See  above,  §  647.  2  Roscher,  Lexikon,  article  "  Heros,"  col.  2473  ff. 

3  Works  mid  Days,  155  ff. 

4  He  appears  to  be  usually  beneficent ;  but,  like  all  the  dead,  he  might  sometimes 
be  maleficent. 


GODS  277 

Departmental  Gods 

655.  It  must  be  regarded  as  an  advance  in  religious  conceptions 
and  religious  life  when  natural  phenomena  are  divided  into  classes 
and  assigned  each  to  its  special  deity ;  such  a  scheme  brings  men 
into  more  intimate  and  sympathetic  relations  with  the  gods.  It  pre- 
supposes a  relatively  advanced  observation  of  nature  and  some 
power  of  coordination  and  generalization,  and  seems  to  be  found 
only  in  communities  that  have  some  well-organized  communal  life. 
In  general  it  belongs  to  the  agricultural  stage  and  to  the  higher 
civilizations  that  have  grown  out  of  this  stage.  Care  for  food  ap- 
pears to  be  the  starting-point;  later,  all  sorts  of  social  interests 
demand  consideration. 

656.  This  specialization  of  functions  is  possibly  in  part  an  ele- 
vation of  the  old  scheme  of  spirits  according  to  which  every  object 
in  the  world  was  conceived  of  as  inhabited  or  controlled  by  some 
spiritlike  being.  It  is  not  probable  that  the  departmental  gods  are 
always  developed  directly  out  of  spirits  —  they  appear  sometimes 
to  belong  rather  in  the  clan  system,  are  anthropomorphic,  human, 
lending  themselves  more  readily  than  spirits  do  to  human  inter- 
course.1 It  is  true  that  the  lower  cults  of  animals  and  spirits  per- 
sist alongside  of  the  higher  religious  forms,  and  the  various  groups 
often  appear  to  blend  with  one  another,  as  is  generally  the  case  in 
transitions  from  one  system  of  thought  to  another. 

657.  Deities  with  this  sort  of  specialized  functions  appear  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  and  at  various  periods  of  culture.  The  particular 
sort  of  specialization  differs  according  to  climatic  conditions  and 
social  organization  —  that  is,  it  depends  in  any  community  on  the 
nature  of  the  phenomena  that  touch  the  life  of  the  community 
closely.  But  the  general  principle  remains  the  same  —  it  is  the  effort 
to  penetrate  more  deeply  into  the  nature  of  the  supernatural  Powers. 
and  to  enter  into  more  intimate  and  helpful  relations  with  them  ;  it 
is  the  beginning  of  a  more  practical  study  of  theology  proper. 

658.  A  somewhat  low  and  vague  form  of  specialization  of  func- 
tion is  found  in  Melanesia,  where  certain  beings  appear  as  patrons 

1  But  these  origins,  going  far  back  into  prehistoric  times,  are  obscure. 


278      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

of  work.1  These  are  said  by  Codrington  to  be  ghosts,  yet  to  be 
prayed  to  just  as  if  they  were  gods ;  and  in  fact,  being  men  with 
indefinitely  great  powers,  they  can  hardly  be  distinguished  from 
such  deities  as  Daramulun  and  Unkulunkulu,  except  in  the  fact  that 
their  function  is  specific.  In  Australia  the  published  reports  do  not 
describe  departmental  gods  proper,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
an  undefined  being  in  the  North.  A  more  developed  scheme  exists 
in  Polynesia.  In  New  Zealand  there  were  deities  of  food-planting 
and  of  forests.2  The  highest  point  of  Polynesian  civilization  seems 
to- have  been  reached  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands,  where,  besides  several 
great  gods,  there  were  deities  of  the  sky,  the  sea,  winds,  and  light- 
ning, of  agriculture,  and  of  various  occupations  and  professions, 
such  as  fishing,  and  even  robbing.3 

659.  The  Sea  Dyaks  have  a  god  of  rice-farming  and  one  of 
war.4  In  the  Malay  Peninsula  there  is  a  confused  mingling  of 
supernatural  beings  of  various  sorts,  with  a  great  development 
of  magic  ;  the  determination  of  the  functions  of  the  better-developed 
gods  is  rendered  difficult  by  the  fact  that  the  Malays  have  been 
much  affected  by  Hindu  influence.5  Such  influence  is  possibly  to 
be  recognized  also  in  the  systems  of  the  Dravidian  and  Kolarian 
tribes,  though  in  them  there  seems  to  be  a  native  non-Aryan  ele- 
ment. The  Khonds  have  gods  of  rain,  fruit,  hunting,  and  bound- 
aries. Among  all  these  tribes  the  chief  deity  is  the  sun-god,  by  whose 
side  stands  the  earth-god  ;  these  may  well  be  primitive,  though  their 
present  form  may  be  due  to  Hindu  influence.6 

660.  The  Masai  of  Eastern  Africa  have  two  chief  gods  —  one 
black,  said  to  be  good ;  the  other  red,  said  to  be  bad.7  The  only 
trace  of  a  recognition  of  cosmic  powers  appears  in  their  myth  that 

1  Codrington,  The  Melanesians,  p.  132. 

2  Tregear,  in  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xix,  97  ff. ;  Grey,  Polynesian 
Mythology,  p.  164.  3  Alexander,  Short  History  of  the  Hawaiian  People. 

4  E.  H.  Gomes,  Southern  Departments  of  Borneo. 

5  Skeat,  Malay  Magic,  chap,  iv ;  Skeat  and  Blagden,  Pagan  Races  of  the  Malay 
Peninsula,  ii,  245  ff. 

,;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  529  f. ;  Crooke,  Popular  Religion  and  Folklore  of 
Northern  India,  i,  chap.  ii. 

7  Hollis,  The  Masai,  p.  264.  The  related  Nandi  worship  the  sun  (Asista)  mainly, 
but  have  also  a  thunder-god  (Hollis,  The  Nandi,  p.  40  f.). 


GODS 


279 


the  sky  and  the  earth  were  once  united  in  one  embrace  ; 1  but  it  is 
not  clear  that  they  recognize  a  god  of  the  sky  and  one  of  the  earth. 
Among  the  Bantu,  who  are  largely,  though  not  wholly,  pastoral,  there- 
appears  to  be  no  trace  of  an  apportionment  of  natural  phenomena 
among  supernatural  beings.'2  On  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  there  is 
a  somewhat  elaborate  scheme  of  departmental  deities.  The  sky  is  the 
chief  god,  but  in  Dahomi  and  Ashanti  there  are  gods  of  lightning, 
fire,  the  ocean,  the  rainbow,  war,  markets,  silk,  cotton,  and  poison 
trees,  smallpox,  sensual  desire,  discord,  and  wisdom  ;  in  Dahomi 
there  is  a  tutelary  god  of  the  royal  family.  The  Yorubans  have  a 
similar  system,  embracing  gods  of  the  Niger,  nightmare,  wealth, 
gardens,  and  divination.3  This  more  elaborate  system  corresponds 
to  their  more  highly  developed  scheme  of  social  organization. 

661.  The  tribes  of  Northeastern  Asia  are  less  developed  reli- 
giously. The  Koryaks  are  said  to  have  benevolent  and  malevolent 
deities,  but  appear  not  to  have  made  much  progress  in  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  distinct  departments  of  nature.4  The  Ainu  have  a  large 
number  of  specific  deities :  the  goddess  of  fire,  whose  title  is 
"  Grandmother  " ;  gods  of  the  kitchen,  of  doors,  of  springs,  and  of 
gardens.5  As  the  Ainu  culture  resembles  that  of  Northeastern 
Asia  in  several  respects,  it  is  possible  that  in  the  latter  region  there 
exists  a  more  highly  specialized  scheme  than  has  yet  been  reported. 
In  Central  Asia  also  it  seems  that  no  great  progress  has  been  made 
in  this  direction  by  native  thought.  The  statement  of  Herodotus  6 
that  the  Thracians  in  time  of  thunderstorms  used  to  shoot  arrows 
at  the  sky  and  threaten  the  god,  may  point  to  a  recognition  of  a  god 
of  the  sky  or  of  storm.  In  the  greater  part  of  Central  Asia  the 
conception  of  local  spirits  has  prevailed  and  still  prevails  (Shaman- 
ism), a  phase  of  religion  that  stands  below  that  of  the  division  of 
nature  into  departments.    In  certain  districts  of  Mongolia,  in  which 

1  Hollis,  op.  cit.,  p.  279. 

-  With  them,  as  everywhere  else,  there  is  occasional  discrimination  in  the  func- 
tions of  magicians,  different  men  healing  or  inflicting  different  sicknesses  ;  cf.  article 
"Bantu"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

3  A.  B.  Ellis,  Ewe,  chap,  v ;    Ts/ii,  chap,  v  ;    Yoruba,  p.  45. 

4  Jochelson,  in  Jesup  North  Pacific  Expedition,  vi,  i,  ^  ff.,  27  ff. 

5  Batchelor,  The  Ainu,  chap.  li.  G  Herodotus,  iv,  94. 


28o     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  theistic  system  is  complicated,  departmental  deities  are  now 
found,  but  the  obvious  dependence  of  this  region  on  Buddhism 
(Lamaism)  and  other  outside  cults  makes  it  doubtful  whether  or 
how  far  this  scheme  of  gods  is  of  native  origin.1 

662.  In  North  America  the  Algonkin  and  Maskoki  nations  and 
the  Skidi  Pawnee  have  deities  of  the  sky,  the  heavenly  bodies,  the 
winds,  and  fire.2  In  the  western  part  of  the  continent  the  theistic 
systems  are  less  developed,  but  the  details  of  the  cults  have  not  yet 
been  fully  collected  ;  so  far  as  appears,  a  departmental  organization 
has  not  been  made.  In  Brazil  there  is  a  trace  of  such  a  conception 
among  the  Tupis ;  but  the  South  American  tribes  remain  at  a  low 
level  of  theistic  development.3 

663.  The  three  greater  religions  of  America,  the  Maya,  the  Mexi- 
can, and  the  Peruvian,  offer  much  more  interesting  material,  in  re- 
gard to  which  the  information  which  has  been  handed  down  to  us  is 
often  unfortunately  meager.  Particularly,  little  definite  is  known  of 
the  Maya  system  ;  the  indications  are  that  the  Mayas  were  superior 
in  civilization  to  the  Aztecs,  and  their  religious  customs  and  con- 
ceptions correspondingly  higher  than  those  of  the  latter.4 

664.  The  Aztec  religion  is  that  which  the  Spaniards  on  their 
arrival  found  to  be  the  dominant  one  in  Mexico.  It  was  the  re- 
ligion of  a  conquering  race,  formed  in  part  by  a  coalition  of  tribes 
and  a  combination  of  cults.  From  the  records  (none  of  which  are 
contemporaneous)  it  appears  that  there  was  a  very  considerable 
specialization  of  function  in  the  Aztec  deities.  These  were  probably 
local  gods  with  universal  functions  gradually  differentiated.  Huitz- 
ilopochtli,  apparently  a  patron  of  vegetation  (with  three  annual  fes- 
tivals corresponding  to  agricultural  seasons),  became  especially 
the  god  of  war,  in  accordance  with  the  character  of  the  Aztecs. 
Another  side  of  social  life  was  embodied  in   the  conception  of 

1  Demetrius  Klementz,  article  "  Buriats  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion 
and  Ethics. 

2-  Brinton,  The  Len&pe,  p.  65  ff. ;  Dorsey,  The  Skidi  Pawnee,  p.  xviii  ff .  On  gods 
of  air  and  winds  see  J.  H.  Keane,  in  article  "  Air  and  Gods  of  the  Air  "  in  Hastings, 
Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics.         3  Hastings,  op.  cit.,  i,  3S2  ff.,  and  ii,  S37. 

4  Brinton,  American  Hero-Myths,  chap,  iv;  A.  M.  Tozzer,  Comparative  Study  of 
the  Mayas  and  the  Lacandoncs  (of  Yucatan),  pp.  So,  93  ff.  ;  H.  H.  Bancroft,  Native 
Races  of  the  Pacific  States  of  North  America,  ii,  chap.  xxff. 


GODS  281 

Tezcatlipoca,  who  represented  law  and  justice,  but  naturally  be- 
came also  a  god  of  war.  In  sharp  contrast  with  these  stands 
Quetzalcoatl,  a  milder  god,  apparently  a  representative  of  general 
culture  and  good  life.  But  he  is  commonly  held  to  be  of  foreign 
origin.  If  a  foreigner,  he  was  nevertheless  adopted  by  the  Aztecs 
and  embodied  one  side  of  their  life,  particularly,  perhaps,  the  pro- 
tests against  the  human  sacrifices,  which  were  so  prominent  a 
feature  in  the  cults  of  the  other  two  deities.  There  were  further 
a  god  of  rain,  a  goddess  of  harvest,  and  a  goddess  of  sensual  pleas- 
ure, besides  a  great  number  of  minor  specialized  deities.  With  this 
specialization  of  function,  however,  there  was  no  corresponding 
development  of  character  in  the  gods,  no  pantheon  proper.  The 
myths  which  have  been  preserved  relate  to  the  origin  of  social  cus- 
toms and  to  the  birth  of  gods.  They  appear  to  have  been  devel- 
oped only  a  step  beyond  the  myths  of  the  Redmen.1 

665.  The  Peruvian  cult  differs  from  the  Mexican  in  that  it 
recognizes,  in  its  developed  form,  one  preeminent  deity,  the  sun- 
god,  from  whom  issues  all  authority.  Along  with  him  stand  two 
prominent  figures,  Viracocha  and  Pachacamac,  who  also  are  credited 
with  great  powers.  Apparently  they  were  local  universal  deities 
who  were  incorporated  into  the  Peruvian  system  and  subordinated 
to  the  sun-god.  All  three  are  only  vague,  general  figures,  having 
no  histories  except  a  few  stories  of  origins,  and  the  Peruvian  myths 
do  not  differ  in  essential  character  from  those  of  the  Aztecs.2 

666.  In  this  category  we  may  include  a  large  number  of  minutely 
specialized  deities  of  the  Egyptians,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Romans.  As 
among  some  lower  tribes  already  referred  to,  so  here  many  common 
objects  and  pursuits  are  regarded  as  being  under  the  fostering  care 
of  specific  deities.  In  Egypt  the  ripe  ear  of  the  grain,  the  birth  of 
a  child  and  its  naming,  and  other  things  had  their  special  divinities.3 

1  J.  G.  Miiller,  Geschichte  der amerikanischen  Urreligionen,  p.  577  ff. ;  Lang,  Myth, 
Ritual,  and  Religion,  chap,  xiv  ;  L.  Spence,  Mythologies  of  Ancient  Mexico  and  Peru  ; 
E.  Seler,  Gesammelte  Abhandlungen.  For  earlier  authorities  see  Winsor,  Narrative 
and  Critical  History  of .  tmerica,  vol.  i,  chaps,  iii,  iv. 

2  J.  G.  Miiller,  Geschichte  der  amerikanischen  Urreligionen^  p.  313  ff. ;  Prescott, 
Peru,  i,  91  ff. ;  C.  R.  Markham,  The  Incas  of  Peru,  chap,  viii ;  and  see  preceding  note. 

3  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civilization,  ii,  81,  note  2  ;  p.  S2;  notes  1  and  2. 


282     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

667.  The  Greeks  had  such  divine  patrons  of  the  corncrib,  beans, 
plowshare,  cattle,  city  walls,  banquets,  potters,  physicians,  athletic 
contests,  and  even  one  hero  known  as  the  "  frightener  of  horses  " 
and  a  deity  called  the  "  flycatcher."  a 

668.  The  Romans  carried  out  this  specialization  in  even  greater 
detail.  Almost  every  object  and  every  event  of  the  communal  life 
had  its  patron  deity :  the  house,  the  hearth,  the  field,  the  boundary 
stone,  sowing  and  reaping,  the  wall,  breath,  marriage,  education, 
death ;  the  Lares  were  the  special  protectors  of  the  house  or  of 
the  field,  and  all  patrons  of  the  home  were  summed  up  under  the 
general  designations  dii penates  and  dii familiares.  Most  of  these 
beings  have  proper  names,  but  even  where  there  are  no  such  names, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  dii  penates,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  they 
were  looked  on  as  personal  individualized  beings.2  The  tendency 
wras,  as  time  went  on,  to  add  to  the  number  of  these  specialized 
patrons,  as  appears  from  the  Roman  indigitamenla?  lists  of  such 
divine  beings  redacted  by  the  priests,  who  were  disposed,  naturally, 
to  make  the  objects  of  worship  as  numerous  as  possible  ;  but  herein 
they  doubtless  responded  to  a  popular  impulse. 

669.  This  disposition  to  define  practical  functions  minutely  ap- 
pears also  in  the  cultic  history  of  the  greater  gods  of  the  old  Roman 
religion :  the  role  of  Jupiter  as  god  of  sky  and  rain  was  definitely 
fixed,  and  Tellus  was  not  the  divine  mother  of  the  human  race  but 
the  beneficent  bestower  of  crops.  As  the  functions  of  such  greater 
gods  became  more  numerous  and  more  definitely  fixed,  epithets  were 
employed  ;  Jupiter  had  a  dozen  or  more  of  such  adjectival  additions, 
and  it  appears  that  at  a  later  time  such  epithets  were  personalized 
into  deities ;  but  this  academic  or  priestly  procedure  does  not  set 
aside  the  fact  that  the  early  Roman  religion  recognized  a  vast  num- 
ber of  divine  beings  as  the  specific  patrons  of  certain  things  and  acts. 

670.  It  was  quite  natural  for  the  practical  Roman  mind  to  place 
everything  of  importance  under  the  care  of  a  divine  being  —  a 


1  Usener,  Gotternamen,  p.  122  ff . ;  L.  R.  Farnell,  "  The  Place  of  the  '  Sonder- 
Gbtter'  in  Greek  Polytheism  "  (in  Anthropological  Essays  / resented  to  E.  B.  Tylor). 

2  Farnell,  op.  cit. ;  cf.  T.  R.   Glover,   Conflict  of  Religions  in  the  Early  Roman 
Empire,  p.  12.  3  Roscher,  Lcxikon,  s.v. 


GODS  283 

procedure  which  is  simply  carrying  out  in  greater  detail  modes  of 
thought  which  we  have  seen  to  be  common  in  many  of  the  lower 
tribes.  Augustine  thinks  this  specialization  amusing,  ridiculous,  and 
difficult  to  understand.  He  brings  up  the  whole  question  of  origin 
when  he  asks  why  it  was  necessary  to  have  two  goddesses  for  the 
waves  of  the  sea  —  one,  Venilia,  representing  the  wave  as  advancing 
to  the  shore  ;  the  other,  Salacia,  representing  the  wave  as  receding.1 
This  seems,  to  be  sure,  an  unnecessary  specialization ;  but,  con- 
sidered in  connection  with  the  whole  Roman  system,  it  is  not  less 
intelligible  than  the  multiplication  of  deities  attending  upon  the 
birth  and  education  of  a  child,  on  the  processes  of  farming,  and  on 
the  fortunes  of  war.  Since  human  life  is  guided  by  the  gods, 
thought  the  Romans,  there  is  no  act  that  may  not  have  its  god  ; 
this  system  is  the  objectivation  of  the  conception  of  divine  special 
providence.2 

671.  To  certain  Semitic  deities  highly  specialized  functions  have 
been  supposed  to  belong ;  but  the  known  facts  hardly  warrant  this 
supposition.  In  the  names  Baal-Marqod,  Baal-Marpe,  Baal-Gad, 
the  second  element  may  be  the  name  of  a  place ;  that  is,  the  Baal 
may  be  a  local  deity  (as  the  Baals  elsewhere  are).  The  title  Baal- 
berit 3  has  been  interpreted  as  meaning  "  lord  of  a  covenant  "  —  that 
is,  a  deity  presiding  over  treaties  ;  but  the  expression  is  not  clear. 
Baal-zebub  is  in  the  Old  Testament  the  god  of  the  Philistine  city 
Ekron,  where  he  had  a  famous  oracle  ; 4  it  is  highly  improbable  that 
the  name  means  "  lord  of  flies  "  (which  would  rather  be  Baal-zebu- 
bim),  but  the  sense  is  obscure.  The  New  Testament  Baal  [Beel]- 
zebul5  (the  only  correct  form)  has  been  variously  explained. 
The  second  element,  zebul,  occurs  in  the  Old  Testament  as  a  name 
of  the  heavenly  abode  of  the  deity,6  and  the  title  has  been  regarded 
as  the  Semitic  rendering  of  a  Greek  or  Roman  title  of  a  god  of 
heaven  (Zeus  Ouranios;  cf.  Caelestis,  epithet  of  Jupiter);  as  foreign 

1  Augustine,  De  Cwitate  Dei,  vii,  22  ;  cf.  bks.  vi,  vii,  passim. 

2  Cf.  Wissowa,  Religion  der  R'dmer,  pp.  15,  145  ff.  ;s  Judg.  viii,  33. 

4  The  name  occurs  only  once,  in  2  Kings,  i,  2.  It  is  incorrectly  adopted  in  the 
English  Version  of  the  New  Testament. 

5  Found  only  in  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  Mk.  iii,  22  ;  Matt,  x,  25  ;  xii,  24,  27 ;  Luke 
xi,  15,  18,  19.  G  Isa.  lxiii,  15. 


284     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

deities  were  called  "  demons"  by  the  later  Jews,  the  chief  of  these 
deities,  it  is  held,  might  well  be  taken  to  be  the  "  prince  of  demons." 
However  this  may  be,  Beelzebul  cannot  be  ranked  among  the  deities 
with  highly  specialized  functions.1 

672.  The  scheme  of  gods  just  described  is  closely  allied  to  that 
of  tutelary  deities  for  individual  human  beings.  A  transitional  step 
may  be  recognized  in  the  assignment  of  special  divine  protectors 
to  every  house  or  village  or  grove,  as  among  the  Ainu  (with  whom 
the  tutelary  power  is  the  head  of  a  bear),  in  Borneo  (where  every 
hduse  has  a  human  skull  as  protector),  among  the  Khonds,  in  the 
Vedic  Vastoshpati,  the  "  lord  of  the  house,"  in  the  Hindu  "  house 
goddess,"  and  in  the  Chinese  tutelary  god  for  every  year.2  From 
such  a  scheme  to  the  assignment  of  a  protecting  spirit  to  every 
human  being  there  is  but  a  step,  and  this  is  made  natural  or  neces- 
sary by  the  increasing  sense  of  the  value  of  the  individual.  Such 
tutelary  spirits  or  deities  are  found  in  Polynesia  and  Africa.3  The 
North  American  manitu  and  the  Central  American  nagual,4  referred 
to  above,  are  not  only  special  objects  of  worship  but  also  constantly 
present  guardians  of  individual  men.  The  Iroquois  have  special 
tutelary  spirits.5  In  Ashanti  such  a  function  is  performed  by  the 
indwelling  spirit,  which  is  scarcely  distinguishable  from  the  man 
himself.6  The  Roman  genius  represents  the  man's  individual  life, 
but  becomes  also  his  guardian ; 7  and  the  daimon  of  Socrates  was 
possibly  originally  a  being  of  the  same  sort,8  though  he  may  have 
identified  it  with  conscience. 


1  On  these  Semitic  titles  see  articles  "  Baal "  and  "  Baalzebub  "  in  Hastings,  En- 
cyclopedia of  Religion  and  Ethics;  article  "Beelzebul"  in  Cheyne,  Encyclopedia 
Biblica ;  various  articles  in  Brown,  Driver,  Briggs,  Hebrew  and  English  Lexicon. 

2  Batchelor,  The  Abut,  chap,  x ;  Furness,  Home  Life  of  the  Borneo  Head-hunters, 
p.  64  f. ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  530,  note  2  ;  De  Groot,  Religion  of  the  Chi- 
nese, p.  129  f. 

3  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  1.8  f. ;  Nassau,  Eetiehism  in  West  Africa,  pp.  67,  163  ff. 

4  On  "manitu"  see  Handbook  of  American  Indians,  s.v.  (and  cf.  article  "  Wa- 
konda  ") ;  W.  Jones,  in  Journal  of  American  Folklore,  xviii,  183  ff.  On  "  nagual "  see 
Bancroft,  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States  of  North  America,  iii,  458  ;  Brinton,  in 
Journal  of  American  Folklore,  viii,  249.  5  Journal  of  American  Folklore,  viii,  115. 

0  Cf.  M.  H.  Kingsley,  West  African  Studies,  p.  132  f. 

"  Roscher,  Lexikon,  i,  2,  col.  1616. 

8  Cf.  article  "  Daimon  "  in  Roscher,  op.  cit. 


GODS  285 

673.  In  the  great  religions  of  antiquity  every  city  and  every  state 
had  its  special  divine  protector.  The  Persian  fravashis  are  the 
guardians  of  individual  human  beings.  The  later  Jews  held  that 
there  was  a  guardian  angel  for  every  nation  and  for  every  person.1 
All  such  conceptions  embody  the  human  sense  of  dependence  on 
divine  aid  and  the  demand  for  specific  divine  protectors  standing 
near  to  man  and  sustaining  special  relations  with  individuals.  In 
some  forms  of  Christianity  the  function  of  protection  is  assigned  to 
patron  saints. 

674.  Certain  classes  of  departmental  or  specific  gods  may  be 
mentioned  here  for  the  purpose  of  indicating  their  development. 

675.  Creators.  The  work  of  the  creation  of  the  world  is  assigned 
among  various  peoples  to  a  great  variety  of  beings.  In  the  earliest 
strata  of  religious  belief  animals  play  a  great  role  as  creators.  The 
known  examples  of  their  creative  function  are  so  numerous  that 
we  may  well  be  disposed  to  regard  it  as  universal.  In  general  it 
is  the  best-known  animal,  or  the  one  credited  with  the  greatest 
sagacity,  that  is  regarded  as  creator.2 

676.  But  the  natural  progress  of  thought  involved  the  advance  to 
the  conception  of  anthropomorphic  creators.  A  transitional  stage 
is  presented  by  the  Australian  Arunta,  in  whose  mythical  sys- 
tem the  authors  of  tribal  institutions  and  the  makers  of  heavenly 
bodies  are  the  half-animal,  half-human  ancestors  ;  this  seems  to  be 
an  attempt  at  a  transformation  of  the  old  scheme  of  creation  by 
animals  —  unwilling  to  abandon  the  earlier  conception,  these  tribes 
have  satisfied  themselves  by  the  theory  that  the  ancestors  and 
creators,  though  animals  in  nature,  must  at  the  same  time  have 
been  human.3  We  may  compare  with  these  the  Melanesian  and 
Samoan  supernatural  beings  who  are  incarnate  in  animal  forms  and 
are  at  the  same  time  originators  of  civilization.4  These  zoomorphic 
beings  are  not  necessarily  totems,  as  in  Australia ;  outside  of  the 
Arunta  it  does  not  appear  that  totems  as  such  are  ever  regarded 

1  Spiegel,  Eranische  Alterthumskunde,  ii.  91  ff . ;  Dan.  x,  20:  xi,  1  ;  xii,  1  ;  Matt, 
xviii,  10.  2  Examples  arc  given  above.  §  255  f. 

3  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  chap.  x. 

4  Codrington,  The  Melanestans,  pp.  150  f..  15S  f'..  168 f. ;  Turner.  Samoa,  pp.  ;,  52. 


286     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

as  creators r  —  they  are  ancestors,  but  at  that  point  their  function 
appears  to  cease. 

677.  There  are  however  ghosts,  which,  while  of  course  repre- 
senting ancestors,  are  regarded  not  specially  in  their  ancestorial 
capacity,  but  rather  as  powerful  beings  who  have  been  more  or 
less  active  in  framing  the  constitution  of  society.  This  form  of 
ghost  occurs  in  Melanesia,  where  also  spirits,  vague  beings  who 
never  were  human,  play  a  great  role.  The  best  authorities  find  it 
somewhat  difficult  to  distinguish  between  such  ghosts  and  spirits 
<>n  the  one  hand,  and  gods  on  the  other  hand.2  The  Qat  of  the 
Banks  Islands  is  in  one  sense  a  creator,  since  he  determines  the 
regular  courses  of  the  seasons  and  is  the  introducer  of  night ;  yet, 
since  he  does  not  actually  create  the  world,  but  only  rearranges  the 
existing  material,  he  belongs  rather  in  the  category  of  transformers 
or  initiators.  Real  anthropomorphic  gods  appear  as  creators  in 
very  early  tribes.  Such,  for  example,  are  Baiame,  Daramulun,  Bun- 
jil  of  Australia,3  perhaps  Supu  of  the  Melanesian  island  of  Vate. 

678.  In  Polynesia  there  is  a  better-defined  cosmogonic  anthropo- 
morphism. The  Hawaiian  creators  Kane  and  Tangaloa  appear  to 
be  fully  formed  deities.4  The  Maoris  have  the  divine  figures 
Heaven  and  Earth,  whose  children  are  the  producers  of  all  things 
in  the  world.  But  Maui,  who  seems  to  be  a  general  Polynesian 
figure,  is  rather  a  culture-hero  than  a  god,  though  his  achievements 
were  of  a  very  serious  sort.  The  Tapa  of  the  Borneo  Land  Dyaks,5 
and  the  Boora  Pennu  of  the  Khonds  6  may  be  regarded  as  real 
gods.  On  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  the  Yorubans,  the  most  ad- 
vanced of  the  coast  tribes,  with  a  well-developed  pantheon,  have 
deities  who  may  be  called  creators  ;  such  are  Obatala,  who,  accord- 
ing to  one  account,  made  the  first  human  pair  out  of  clay,  and  Ifa, 
the  restorer  of  the  world  after  the  flood.7    In  North  America  the 


1  Here  again  a  distinction  must  be  made  between  animals  simply  sacred  and  those 
that  are  specifically  totemic.         2  Codrington,  The  Mclanesians,  pp.  248  f.,  253  ff. 

3  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  chaps,  xii  f. 

4  So  the  Samoan  Tangaloa  (Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  3d  ed.,  ii,  344  f.). 

5  St.  John,  The  Far  East,  i,  180.  G  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  528  ff. 

7  A.  B.  Ellis,  Yornba,  pp.  38  ff.,  56  ff. ;  cf.  M.  H.  Kingsley,  West  African  Studies, 
p.  117  ff. 


GODS  287 

New  England  Kiehtan  and  the  Virginian  Oki  have  creative  func- 
tions.1 The  Navahos  ascribe  the  creation  of  certain  animals  to  a 
god  Bekotsidi,  whose  character  and  role,  however,  are  vague.2  The 
Brazilian  Tupan  and  Jurupari  appear  to  be  divine  creators.3  For  a 
good  many  tribes  in  all  parts  of  the  world  the  published  reports 
give  no  precise  information  regarding  the  beginning  of  things,  but 
it  seems  probable  that  fuller  acquaintance  with  them  would  reveal 
conceptions  similar  to  those  described  above. 

679.  The  great  civilized  nations,  with  their  well-formed  anthropo- 
morphic deities,  have  constructed  elaborate  cosmogonies,  which 
commonly  begin  with  the  conception  of  an  unshaped  mass  of 
material  out  of  which  the  gods  arise  and  create  the  world.  There 
is  no  great  difference  in  these  various  schemes :  Babylonians  and 
Greeks  have  fallen  upon  substantially  the  same  general  view  of 
creation ;  the  variations  among  the  various  peoples  are  due  to  cir- 
cumstances of  place  and  culture.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  Maoris 
have  a  cosmogony  which  is  not  unlike  that  of  the  great  civilized 
nations  of  antiquity,  but  the  origin  of  their  scheme  of  the  world  is 
not  clear.4 

680.  Gods  of  the  other  world.  The  class  of  departmental 
gods  includes  those  who  have  charge  of  the  other  world.  As  soon 
as  the  abode  of  men  after  death  is  definitely  fixed,  it  is  natural 
that  a  deity  presiding  over  this  other  world  should  arise.  Among 
the  lower  tribes  this  sort  of  god  is  not  frequent.5  One  of  the 
clearest  cases  of  such  organization  occurs  in  Fiji.0  Here,  in  addi- 
tion to  other  deities  who  deal  with  the  dead  on  their  entrance  into 

1  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  preface  to  new  edition. 

2  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  34. 

3  Article  "  Brazil"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

4  G.  Grey,  Polynesian  Mythology,  p.  1  ff . ;  Taylor,  New  Zealand,  chap,  vi ;  cf., 
for  Polynesia,  W.  Ellis,  Polynesian  Researches,  chap.  xiii.  The  abstract  ideas  reported 
by  Taylor  are  remarkable:  from  conception  came  increase,  from  this  came  swelling, 
then,  in  order,  thought,  remembrance,  desire  ;  or,  from  nothing  came  increase  and  so 
forth  ;  or,  the  word  brought  forth  night,  the  night  ending  in  death.  The  significance 
of  this  scheme  (supposing  it  to  be  correctly  stated)  has  not  been  explained.  The 
role  assigned  to  "desire"  in  the  Rig-Veda  creation-hymn  (x,  129)  is  the  product  of 
learned  reflection  (cf.  Schopenhauer's  "blind  will"),  and  sounds  strange  in  the 
mouth  of  New  Zealand  savages.  5  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  30S  ff. 

6  Williams  and  Calvert,  Fiji,  p.  193  f. 


288      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

this  farther  world,  the  great  deity  Ndengei  has  his  abode,  and 
one  of  his  functions  is  to  pass  on  the  merits  of  those  who  present 
themselves  from  the  world  of  living  men.  He  is,  however,  in  part 
an  otiose  deity  and  can  hardly  be  said  to  rule  over  this  other- 
worldly realm.  Similar  undeveloped  deities  are  found  among  the 
Maoris  and  the  Finns.1 

681.  But  fully  formed  and  effective  divine  rulers  of  the  other 
world  occur  only  in  the  more  advanced  religions,  such  as  the  Baby- 
lonian, the  Egyptian,  the  Hindu,  the  Persian,  the  Greek,  the 
Roman.2  From  the  nature  of  their  abode  such  deities  have  very 
little  to  do  with  the  life  on  earth  except  when,  as  in  the  Egyptian 
system  and  to  some  extent  in  the  Fijian,  there  is  a  judge  of  con- 
duct, with  authority  to  assign  the  dead  their  places,  good  or  bad. 
In  such  cases  they  become  important  moral  factors  in  life. 

682.  An  ethical  god  of  the  other  world  appears  not  to  have 
been  created  by  the  Semites.  The  Babylonian  Underworld  god- 
dess or  god  has  nothing  to  do  with  moral  character,  and  among 
the  Hebrews,  so  far  as  the  statements  in  the  Old  Testament  go, 
no  special  deity  was  assigned  to  the  other  world  ;  whether  such 
an  Underworld  deity  once  existed  and  was  lost  by  the  Hebrews, 
or  has  been  expunged  by  the  later  editors  of  the  Old  Testament 
books,  must  remain  uncertain  ; 3  in  the  late  pre-Christian  period  the 


1  Grey,  Polynesian  Mythology,  p.  15  ;  Castren,  Finnische  Mythologie,  p.  1. 

2  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  (English  and  German  editions), 
Index,  s.vv.  A  Hat  it,  Nergal;  id.,  Aspects  of  Religions  Belief  and  Practice  in  Baby- 
lonia and  Assyria,  p.  368  ff.  ;  Wiedemann,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  217  ; 
Erman,  Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion,  p.  94  ff . ;  Macdonell,  Vedic  Mythology,  pp. 
171  ff.,  169  ff. ;  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  p.  144  f. ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India, 
p.  128  ff . ;  Spiegel,  Eranische  Alterthwnsknndc,  ii,  163  (but  the  old  Persian  god  of 
the  Underworld,  if  there  was  one,  was  absorbed,  in  Zoroastrianism,  by  Ahura  Mazda)  ; 
Jackson,  in  Geiger  and  Kuhn's  Grnndriss  der  iranisehen  Philologie,  ii,  652,  §  52; 
Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  Stales,  ii,  513  ff.;  iii,  chap,  v:  Wissowa,  Religion  der 
Rome?;  p.  187  ff. ;  Aust,  Religion  der  Rome/;  p.  52  ;  Rohde,  Psyche,  3d  ed.  i,  205,  ff. ; 
articles  on  Hades,  Plutos,  Hermes,  Dionysos,  Nergal,  and  related  deities,  in  Ro- 
scher's  Lexikon. 

3  Cf.  Jastrow,  Aspects  of  Religions  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria, 
pp.  356  f.,  372  f.  ;  F.  Schwally,  Das  Lcbcn  nach  dein  Tode,  p.  65  ff . ;  R.  H.  Charles, 
Eschatology,  p.  iS  f.  For  the  Arabs  see  Wellhausen,  Reste  arabischen  Hcidoiinmcs, 
iii,  22  ff.,  42  ff. ;  Noldeke,  article  "Arabs  (Ancient)  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopcedia  of 
Religion  and  Ethics  ;  for  the  Phoenicians,  Pietschmann,  Phonizic/;p.  191  f. 


GODS  289 

national  god,  Yahweh,  was  regarded  as  controlling  the  I'nder- 
world  as  well  as  Heaven  and  Earth.1  The  Greek  Aides  or  Plouton 
and  the  Roman  Pluto  also  are  not  ethical  gods  in  the  higher  sense, 
as  indeed  no  early  deity  of  any  people  has  such  a  moral  character. 
At  a  later  period  ethical  distinctions  were  introduced  into  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  other  world. 

By  reason  of  paucity  of  data  it  is  difficult  to  determine  the  pre- 
cise characters  of  various  Celtic,  Slavic,  and  Germanic  deities 
whose  names  appear  in  the  records.  They  are  gods  of  clans  and 
of  departments  of  nature;  none  of  them  can  properly  be  reck- 
oned among  the  great  gods.-2 

683.  Division  into  good  and  bad  Powers.  Among  main'  savage 
and  half-civilized  peoples  we  find  that  a  distinction  is  recognized 
between  good  and  bad  ghosts  and  spirits  —  a  distinction  at  first 
vague,  based  on  passing  experiences  in  which  all  the  fortunes  of 
men,  favorable  and  unfavorable,  are  referred  to  these  beings. 
Their  morals  are  those  of  the  human  communities  with  which 
they  are  connected  :  they  may  be  amiable  or  malignant,  beneficent 
or  revengeful,  but  the  ethical  element  in  their  characters  and  deeds 
is  not  distinctly  recognized  and  is  not  made  the  basis  of  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  two  classes.  The  world  is  seen  to  be  full  of 
Powers  that  make  for  weal  or  for  woe  —  a  conception  that  con- 
tains the  germ  of  all  the  later  development  but  is  at  first  nebulous. 

684.  In  a  somewhat  higher  form  of  culture  these  two  classes 
of  Powers  may  be  unified  respectively  into,  or  replaced  by.  two 
gods,  one  helpful,  the  other  harmful.  Such  appears  to  be  the 
scheme  of  the  Masai,  who  have  their  black  god  and  red  god.3  A 
Californian  cosmogonic  myth  describes  a  nonmoral  conflict  of 
work  between  the  good  "  Creator "  and  the  malicious  Coyote.4 

1  Ps.  exxxix. 

2  See  article  "Celts"  in  Hastings,  op.  cit. ;  Saussaye,  Lehrbuch  der  Religions- 
geschichlc,  2d  ed. ;  Usener,  Gbtternamen ;  article  "Aryan  Religion"  in  Hastings, 
op.  cit.,  p.  38  f.  and  passim. 

3  Hollis,  The  Masai,  p.  264.  The  neighboring  Nandi,  according  to  Hollis  (/'//<• 
Nandi,  p.  41),  have  a  similar  pair. 

4  A.  C.  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu  {Bulletin  of  the  .  Xmerican  Museum  of  Natural 
History,  xviii.  iii),  p.  263.  For  other  such  conceptions  see  Tylor's  discussion  in 
Primitive  Culture,  ii,  320  ff. 


290     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

A  real  unification  appears,  however,  to  be  rare ;  it  supposes  in 
fact  a  degree  of  reflection  and  organization  that  we  should  not 
expect  to  find  among  lower  peoples.  The  story,  for  example,  that 
has  been  told  of  a  well-developed  dualistic  system  of  the  Iroquois 
is  based  on  a  misconception.1  Dualism  proper  is  not  recogniz- 
able among  the  savages  of  America,  Polynesia,  Asia,  or  Africa.2 
In  the  Old  Testament  prior  to  the  sixth  century  B.C.  the  spirits, 
good  and  bad,  which  are  not  essentially  different  from  those  we 
find  among  the  lower  tribes,  are  massed  under  the  control  of 
Y^hweh,  and  do  his  bidding  without  moral  reflection;  when  he 
sends  a  lying  spirit  into  the  mouth  of  Ahab's  prophets3  this 
spirit  goes  without  malice  merely  to  perform  the  will  of  the 
supreme  god.  This  massing  of  all  spirit  Powers  under  the  control 
of  one  god  is  a  step  toward  unity  and  clearness  in  the  conception 
of  the  government  of  the  world. 

685.  At  a  later  stage  of  social  growth  there  appears  the  con- 
ception of  a  cosmic  struggle,  the  conflict  between  the  natural 
forces  that  tend  to  disorder  and  those  that  tend  to  order.  Philo- 
sophical reflection  led  to  the  supposition  of  an  original  chaos,  a 
medley  of  natural  forces  not  combined  or  organized  in  such  a  way 
as  to  minister  to  the  needs  of  human  life ;  and  a  similar  concep- 
tion of  conflict  may  have  arisen  from  observation  of  the  warring 
elements  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year. 

686.  The  adjustment  of  the  rival  forces  and  the  establishment 
of  a  system  of  physical  order  is  referred  to  the  great  gods.  Such 
a  picture  of  the  original  state  of  things  is  contained  in  the  elabo- 
rate Babylonian  cosmologies  that  have  come  down  to  us ;  in  these 
the  dragon  of  disorder  (Tiamat)  is  completely  conquered  by  the  god 
Bel-Marduk,  who  represents  the  Babylonian  civilization  of  the 
time  in  which  the  cosmology  arose.  Of  the  same  nature  is  the 
Egyptian  myth  of  the  contest  between  Horus  (the  light)  and  Set 
(the  dark),  in  which,  however,  the  victory  of  Horus  is  not  described 

1  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  63  ;  H.  Hale,  Iroquois  Book  of  Rites,  p.  74. 

'-'  A  possible  exception  is  the  Khond  myth  of  the  struggle  between  the  sun-god 
(Boora  Pennu),  the  giver  of  all  good  things,  and  the  earth-goddess  (Tari),  the  au- 
thor of  evil  things  (Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  529  f. ;  Macpherson,  India,  p.  S4)  ; 
but  the  origin  of  this  myth  is  uncertain.  3  1  Kings  xxii,  19-23. 


GODS 


291 


as  being  absolute1  —  a  representation  suggested,  possibly,  by  the 
recognition  of  the  persistence  of  the  good  and  bad  elements  of  the 
world;  compare  the  cosmologies  of  the  Maidu  and  the  Khonds 
mentioned  above  (§684).  In  the  Greek  and  Teutonic  myths  in 
which  the  Giants  are  the  enemies  of  the  great  gods  a  more  humane 
and  settled  government  of  the  world  is  introduced  by  Zeus  and 
Wodan.  Traces  of  this  construction  of  the  universe  are  to  be 
found  also  among  the  Maoris,  the  Hawaiians,  and  other  peoples 
of  a  like  grade.'2 

687.  In  the  original  form  of  these  myths  there  is  no  moral  ele- 
ment beyond  the  fact  that  the  settlement  of  the  cosmic  powers  was 
necessary  in  order  to  the  establishment  of  good  social  life.  Individ- 
ual wicked  deities  do  not  appear  at  this  stage,  but  the  way  is  pre- 
pared for  them  by  the  picture  of  cosmic  struggle  in  which  powers 
friendly  and  unfriendly  to  men  are  opposed  to  one  another.  A 
similar  conception  is  found  in  the  figures  of  the  Fates,  who  are  the 
embodiment  of  the  course  of  events  in  the  world  —  the  immovable, 
remorseless,  absolute  fortune  of  men,  good  and  bad  —  a  picture 
of  life  as  it  has  presented  itself,  doubtless,  to  men  in  all  periods  of 
history.  Out  of  this  came  the  abstract  conception  of  Fate,  the 
impersonal  power  that  controls  all  things. 

688.  The  deeper  conception  of  a  conflict  between  the  moral  good 
and  the  moral  evil  in  life  belongs  to  the  latest  period  in  religious 
history.  Here  the  determining  fact  is  the  control  of  the  world  by 
the  high  gods,  who  have  their  adversaries,  but  in  general  prove 
victors.  At  the  foundation  of  this  scheme  of  the  world  lies  the  con- 
ception of  order,  which  is  particularly  defined  in  the  Yedic  arta  and 
the  Avestan  asha 3  —  the  regulation  of  the  world  in  accordance 
with  human  interests,  in  which  the  ethical  element  becomes  more 
and  more  prominent  as  human  society  is  more  and  more  formed 
on  an  ethical  basis. 

1  Ed.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Altai  Aegyptens,  p.  71  f. ;  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civili- 
zation, pp.  172,  177. 

2  R.  Taylor,  New  Zealand,  pp.  114  ff.,  132  ;  Jean  A.  ( >wen,  The  Story  of  Hawaii, 
p.  70  f. 

3  Mills,  in  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  xx,  31  ff. ;  Uloomfield, 
Religion  of  the   Veda,  p.  125  ff. 


292     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

*■ 

689.  Ethical  dualism  is  most  fully  embodied  in  the  Persian  con- 
ception of  two  gods,  good  and  bad,  with  the  understanding  that 
the  good  god,  Ahura  Mazda,  exercises  a  certain  restraint  on  the 
bad  god,  Angro  Mainyu,  who  is  finally  to  be  crushed.1  This  opti- 
mistic point  of  view,  which  has  no  doubt  existed  in  germinal  shape 
among  all  peoples,  appears  also  in  the  modified  dualism  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  late  Jewish  and  Christian  schemes.  The  Old 
Testament  Satan  is  originally  a  divine  being,  one  of  the  "  sons  of 
the  Elohim"  (that  is,  he  belongs  to  the  Elohim,  or  divine,  class);  his 
function  is  that  of  inspector  of  human  conduct,  prosecutor-general, 
with  a  natural  tendency  to  disparage  men  and  demand  their  pun- 
ishment. As  a  member  of  Yahweh's  court  and  council  he  makes 
regular  reports  to  his  divine  lord  and  pleads  cases  before  the  divine 
court.2  In  this  character  he  is  suspicious  and  mischievous  but  not 
immoral ;  but  a  little  later  a  trace  of  malice  appears  in  him,3  and  in 
the  uncanonical  Jewish  book  of  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon  and  in 
the  New  Testament  he  advances  to  the  position  of  the  head  of  the 
kingdom  of  moral  evil,  so  that  he  is  called  also  "  the  god  of  the 
present  age  "  4  —  that  is,  he  is  the  controller  of  the  existing  un- 
regenerate  element  in  human  society,  and  is  to  be  displaced  when 
the  ideal  age  shall  be  established. 

690.  Man's  attitude  toward  demons.  Demons  5  (the  term  being 
taken  to  include  all  early  malefic  superhuman  beings,  whether  ghosts 
or  spirits)  are  feared  and  guarded  against,  but  rarely  receive  wor- 
ship. As  they  are  the  authors  of  all  physical  ills  that  cannot  be 
explained  on  natural  grounds,  measures,  usually  magical,  are  taken 
to  thwart  their  purposes  —  to  prevent  their  intervention  or  to  over- 
come and  banish  the  evil  begun  by  them.  As  they  are  not  credited 
with  moral  principle,  hostility  to  them  rests  not  on  ethical  feeling 
but  merely  on  fear  of  suffering.6  If  they  are  placated,  it  is  in  cases 
in  which  they  approach  the  character  of  gods  and  in  so  far  cease  to 
be  demons  in  our  sense  of  the  word.    They  serve  a  useful  purpose 

1  Spiegel,  Eranische  Alterthumskunde,  ii,  21  ff.,  121  ff. 

2  Zech.  iii,  1-5  ;  Job  i,  ii.  3  x  chr.  xxi,  1.  4  2  Cor.  iv,  4. 

5  The  Greek  daimon,  properly  simply  a  deity,  received  its  opprobrious  sense  when 
Jews  and  Christians  identified  foreign  deities  with  the  enemies  of  the  supreme  God. 

6  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  31S  ff. 


GODS 


293 


in  that,  taking  on  their  shoulders  all  the  ills  of  life,  they  leave  the 
clan  gods  free  from  the  suspicion  of  unfriendliness  to  men.1  On  the 
other  hand,  the  belief  in  them  has  created  a  pseudo-science  of  relief 
from  suffering  and  a  great  host  of  pseudo-doctors  who  for  a  long 
time  exercised  a  large  control  over  society  and  bound  men  in  fetters 
of  ignorance. 

691.  In  early  societies  demons  have  not  individual  names.  In 
savage  societies  there  are  malefic  deities,  with  individual  names, 
connected  with  sicknesses  and  other  ills ;  but  such  deities  are  not 
demons.  Demons  do  not  enter  into  friendly  social  relations  with 
men,2  and  observation  of  experiences  is  not  carried  so  far  as  to 
assign  every  ill  to  a  separate  author.  In  more  advanced  societies, 
as,  for  instance,  the  Babylonian,3  demons  are  divided  into  classes 
according  to  their  various  lines  of  activity,  and  to  these  classes 
names  are  given.  If  some  individual  demon,  representing  a  partic- 
ular ill,  becomes  specially  important,  it  may  receive  an  individual 
name.  In  general,  the  demonic  name-giving  follows  the  theistic,  but 
lags  behind  it.  Clan  gods  have  at  first  some  such  appellation  as 
Old  One,  Grandfather,  or  a  descriptive  epithet  (as  among  some 
American  Indian  tribes),  and  later,  Lord,  Lady,  Mighty  One,  Exalted 
One ;  in  process  of  time  they  receive  proper  names,  which  must  have 
arisen  at  a  relatively  early  period,  since  the  meaning  of  the  names 
of  most  of  the  old  deities  was  to  the  ancients,  as  it  is  to  us,  unknown. 
In  the  case  of  the  demonic  world  this  development  has  not  been 
carried  so  far,  for  the  reason  stated  above,  namely,  that  these 
beings,  unlike  gods,  have  not  become  real  citizens  of  the  commu- 
nities with  which  they  are  connected. 

692.  In  like  manner  the  organization  of  demons  has  not  kept 
pace  with  that  of  gods.  In  most  regions  they  have  remained  a 
mob,  every  individual  pursuing  his  way  independently.   It  is  only  in 

1  Great  gods  also  send  suffering,  but  only  when  they  are  angered  by  men's  acts, 
as  by  disrespect  to  a  priest  (Apollo,  in  Iliad,  i)  or  to  a  sacred  thing  (Vahweh,  1  Sam. 
vi.  19 ;  2  Sam.  vi,  7).  In  the  high  spiritual  religions  suffering  is  treated  as  educative, 
or  is  accepted  as  involving  some  good  purpose  unknown  to  men. 

-  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  p.  126  f. 

3  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  .Assyria,  p.  260  ff. ;  O.  Weber,  Damonenbe- 
scfrworung  bet  den  Babylonian  and  .  tssyriern  (in  Der  .  life  Orient,  1906). 


294     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

advanced,  cults  that  they  form  a  community  with  a  head.  In  China 
and  Persia  the  sharp  division  of  supernatural  forces  into  two  classes 
was  the  outcome  of  great  religious  reformations  that  followed  the 
usual  savage  chaos  of  the  hordes  of  demons.  The  Jewish  demonol- 
ogy  (probably  influenced  by  the  Persian)  chose  for  the  head  of  its 
kingdom  of  evil  an  old  god  (the  Satan)  or  the  similar  figure  Azazel.1 
693.  It  does  not  appear  that  religious  worship  has  ever  been 
offered  to  a  being  regarded  as  morally  bad  and  in  honor  of  moral 
badness.  The  "  devils "  reported  by  early  (and  some  recent) 
travelers  as  the  recipients  of  religious  homage  turn  out  on  inquiry 
to  be  clan  gods  whose  anger  is  feared.2  The  cult  of  many  savage 
and  many  civilized  deities  has  been,  and  is,  characterized  by  gross 
cruelty  and  licentiousness ;  but  it  is  certain  that  human  sacrifice 
and  sexual  indulgence  were,  and  are,  in  these  cases  not  regarded  as 
morally  wrong.  Durga  (Kali),  wife  of  Qiva,  most  terrible  and 
repulsive  of  female  deities,  while  she  is  feared,  is  also  revered  as  the 
giver  of  all  good  gifts  ;  and  the  Thugs,  when  they  offered  her  their 
strangled  victims,  ascribed  no  more  moral  blame  to  her  than  to 
themselves  —  their  work  they  regarded  not  as  murder  but  as  pious 
sacrifice.3  The  Gnostic  sects,  Ophites  and  Cainites,  looked  on  the 
serpent  and  Cain  as  friends  of  the  supreme  Deity  and  of  man ; 
they  were  enemies  only  of  the  Demiourgos,  the  Jewish  god  Yahweh, 
who,  they  held,  wished  to  keep  man  in  ignorance.4  The  Mesopo- 
tamian  Yezidis  also  (the  so-called  devil-worshipers)  revere  only 
beings  that  they  regard  as  morally  good  or  as  destined  to  become 
good.  Their  peculiar  attitude  toward  Satan  (a  mingling  of  fear  and 
respect)  is  based  not  on  his  connection  with  evil  but  on  their  expec- 
tation that,  though  he  is  now  fallen  from  his  high  angelic  estate,  he 
is  ultimately  to  be  restored  to  his  original  dignity.5 

i  The  Ethiopic  Book  of  Enoch  (ed.  R.  H.  Charles),  chaps,  liii,  vi-x ;  the  Slavonic 
Enoch,  or  Secrets  of  Enoch  (ed.  R.  H.  Charles),  chap.  xxxi.  For  the  later  Jewish  view 
(in  Talmud  and  Midrash)  see  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  article  "  Satan." 

2  The  "demons  "of  i  Cor.  x,  20  (King  James  version,  "devils")  are  foreign  deities. 

3  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  pp.  416,  492  ff. 

4  Herzog-Hauck,  Rcal-Encyklopadic,  articles  "  Ophiten,"  "  Kainiten." 

5  J.  Menant,  Les  Yezidiz  (in  Annales  du  Musee  Gitimet)  ;  Isya  Joseph,  Yezidi 
Texts  (reprinted  from  American  Journal  of  Semitic  Languages  and  Literatures,  xxv 
(1909),  no.  2  f.).   Cf.  the  idea  of  restoration  in  Col.  i,  20. 


GODS  295 

694.  Thus,  it  cannot  be  said  that  a  demon  has  ever  developed 
into  a  god.  The  malefic  Powers  of  -savages  have  generally  been 
absorbed  by  higher  beings  or  have  otherwise  disappeared.  Some 
gods,  such  as  the  Hebrew  Satan  and  certain  Greek  deities,  have 
been  degraded  to  the  demonic  class.  In  some  cases,  particularly  in 
the  Zoroastrian  system,  a  being  who  is  the  consolidation  of  all 
malign  supernatural  activities  has  been  credited  with  ail-but  divine 
power  and  authority.1  But  the  two  classes  remain  distinct  —  the 
true  "  god  "  is  a  friendly  member  of  a  human  society,  and  when  he 
is  angry  may  be  placated  ;  the  true  "  demon  "  is  essentially  hos- 
tile to  men  and  must  be  thwarted  and  expelled.2 

695.  Gods  of  abstractions.  Gods  of  abstractions,  found  in  cer- 
tain theistic  systems,  are  to  be  distinguished  on  the  one  hand  from 
deities  that  are  simply  personalizations  of  physical  objects  (such  as 
Vesta  and  Agni)  and  on  the  other  hand  from  poetical  personifica- 
tions, such  as  that  of  Wisdom  in  the  Jewish  books  of  Proverbs, 
Ecclesiasticus,  and  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  from  concrete  fig- 
ures like  the  Logos  of  Philo  and  the  Fourth  Gospel.  Though  these 
abstract  forms  appear  to  be  relatively  late  (posterior  to  the  for- 
mation of  the  greater  gods),  the  meagerness  of  our  data  makes  it 
difficult  to  describe  their  genesis  and  the  conceptions  of  their  char- 
acter by  the  peoples  among  whom  they  arise.  Some  facts  known 
to  us,  however,  may  help  us  to  understand  in  part  the  process  by 
which  they  came  into  existence. 

696.  We  have  already  considered  the  tendency  in  human  com- 
munities to  particularize  the  divine  objects  of  worship  and  to  per- 
sonalize external  objects ;  every  where,  it  would  appear,  there  is  a 
disposition  to  assign  a  particular  divine  control  to  every  fact  that  is 
specially  connected  with  human  interests.  We  have  to  note,  fur- 
ther, the  tendency  to  concretize,  as,  for  example,  in  many  cases  in 
which  evil,  physical  or  moral,  is  regarded  as  a  concrete  thing  that 
may    be    removed    bodily    from    the    community.3     This    sort    of 

1  So  the  Christian  Satan. 

2  When,  in  the  reports  of  travelers  and  other  observers,  demons  are  said  to  be  pla- 
cated, examination  shows  that  these  beings  are  gods  who  happen  to  be  mischievous. 
Of  this  character,  for  example,  appear  to  be  the  "  demons"  mentioned  in  Hastings,  En- 
cyclopccdia  of  Religion  and Ethics \  ii,  122.         3  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  cd.,  iii,  39  ff. 


296     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

conception  we  may  suppose  to  be  connected  with  early  psycholog- 
ical theory,  according  to  which  anything  that  affects  man  is  credited 
with  manlike  form  and  power.  The  facility  with  which  the  abstract 
and  the  concrete  may  be  identified  is  illustrated  by  such  modern 
terms  as  deity,  majesty,  highness,  state,  government,  direction, 
counsel ;  in  these  expressions  the  abstract  quality  or  act  is  incar- 
nated in  certain  persons,  and  so  we  may  imagine  that  at  a  certain 
stage  of  society  any  quality  or  act  might  be  isolated  and  regarded 
as  a  personal  thing.  A  series  of  victories,  for  example,  might  sug- 
gest the  conception  of  '  victory '  as  a  thing  present  in  these  events, 
and  the  tendency  to  personalize  would  then  create  the  divine  figure 
Victory.  Historically  a  personalization  may  have  arisen,  in  some 
cases,  through  the  isolation  of  an  epithet  of  a  deity  (so,  for  example, 
Fides  may  have  come  from  Dius  Fidius),1  but  in  such  cases  the 
psychological  basis  of  the  personalization  is  the  same  as  that  just 
stated.  From  these,  as  is  remarked  above,  must  be  distinguished 
poetical  and  philosophical  abstractions. 

697.  Whatever  be  the  explanation  of  the  process,  we  find  in  fact 
a  large  number  of  cases  in  which  such  abstractions  appear  as  deities 
and  receive  worship. 

698.  Semitic.  The  material  for  the  Semitic  religions  on  this  point 
is  scanty.2  The  Arabic  divine  names  supposed  by  Noldeke  to  repre- 
sent abstractions  are  Manat  (fate),  Sa'd  (fortune),  Ruda  (favor), 
Wadd  (love),  Manaf  (height),  'Aud  (time).  Whether  these  are  all 
abstract  terms  is  doubtful.  Wadd  means  also  r  lover,'  divine  friend 
or  patron.  Scfd  occurs  as  adjective  '  fortunate,'  is  the  appellation 
of  certain  stars,  and  the  god  Sa'd  is  identified  by  an  Arab  poet 
with  a  certain  rock  3  —  the  rock  is  doubtless  an  old  local  divinity. 

1  But  see  below,  §  704. 

2  Baethgen,  Beitrdge  znr  semitischen  Religionsgeschichte ;  Wellhausen,  Shizzen, 
hi,  25  ;  Noldeke,  in  Zeitschrift  der  deutschen  morgenlandischen  Gescllschaft,  1886,  1 888, 
and  article  "Arabs  (Ancient)"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics; 
Pinches,  article  "Gad,"  and  Driver,  article  "  Meni,'r  in  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible ;  Cheyne,  article  "  Fortune  "  in  Encyclopedia  Biblica  ;  Commentaries  of  De- 
litzsch,  Duhm,  Marti,  Skinner,  and  Box  on  Isa.  lxv,  1 1. 

3  Lane,  Arabic-English  Lexicon,  s.v.  The  Old  Testament  title  "  Rock"  given  to 
Yahweh  (Deut.  xxxii,  18,  "the  Rock  that  begat  thee  ")  is  figurative,  but  may  go  back 
to  a  divine  rock. 


GODS  297 

Ruda  is  found  apparently  only  as  a  divine  name  (in  Palmyrene 
and  Safa  inscriptions  and  as  a  god  of  an  Arabian  tribe)  —  the  form 
may  be  concrete,  in  the  sense  of  '  favoring,'  divine  patron.  As 
"time"  (dahr^  zaman)  often  occurs  in  Arabic  poetry  in  the  sense 
of  '  fate,'  the  god  *Aud  may  be  an  embodiment  of  this  conception.1 
Manaf,  if  understood,  as  is  possible,  in  the  sense  !  high  place,'  is 
not  abstract  but  concrete,  though  in  that  case  the  original  refer- 
ence of  the  term  is  not  clear. 

699.  Manat  is  one  of  the  three  great  goddesses  of  Mecca,  the 
others  being  Al-Lat  ('  the  goddess ')  and  Al-Uzza  ('  the  mighty  one ') ; 
as  these  two  names  are  concrete,  there  is  a  certain  presumption  that 
Manat  likewise  is  concrete.  The  original  meaning  of  the  word  is 
obscure.  It  does  not  occur  as  a  common  noun,  but  from  the  same 
stem  come  terms  meaning  'doom,  death,'2  and,  if  it  be  allied  to 
these,  it  would  be  an  expression  for  '  fate '  (like  *Aud).  However, 
the  stem  is  used  in  the  sense  '  number,  determine,  assign,'  and 
Manat  may  be  the  divine  determiner  of  human  destinies.  From 
this  same  stem  comes  the  Biblical  Meni,  and  apparently  the  Assyrian 
Manu.z  The  ordinary  North  Semitic  conception  of  the  source  of 
human  destinies  is  that  they  are  determined  by  the  gods  and  writ- 
ten on  tablets  or  in  a  book,4  and  the  same  conception  may  have 
existed  in  the  South  Semitic  area.5  The  other  deity  mentioned  in 
Isaiah  lxv,  11,  is  Gad;  the  word  means  in  Arabic  and  Hebrew 
'  fortune,  good  fortune,'  and  occurs  as  the  name  of  a  deity  in 
Phoenician  and  Aramaic  inscriptions,  but  the  data  are  not  sufficient 
to  fix  its  original  sense.    It  is  the  name  of  a  Hebrew  tribe,  which 

1  On  the  Hebrew  place-name  (Job  i,  1)  and  perhaps  personal  name  (Gen.  xxxvi,  28) 
Us  (Uz),  which  seems  to  be  formally  identical  with  'Aud,  see  W.  R.  Smith,  Kinship 
and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia,  ist  ed.,  p.  260  f.,  and  his  Religion  of  the  Semites,  p.  43  ; 
Wellhausen,  Skizzen,  iii ;  Noldeke,  in  Zeitsehrift  tier  deutschen  morgenl'dndischen 
Gesellsehaff,  xl,  183  f.  2  Maniya,  plural  mandya. 

3  Isa.  lxv,  11;  111  Rawlinson,  66. 

*  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and .  Issyria,  pp.420, 42S  (the  tablets  of  fate  given  to 
Kingu  and  snatched  from  him  by  Marduk)  ;  R.  F.  Harper,  Assyrian  and  Babylonian 
Literature,  p.  304  f.  (Marduk  seizes  the  tablets  of  fate  from  Zu)  ;  Ps.  exxxix.  i<>: 
Dan.  vii,  10;  Rev.  v,  1,  and  other  passages. 

5  As  far  as  the  forms  are  concerned,  a  concrete  sense  for  manat,  nianu,  meni, 
seems  possible;  cf.  Wright,  Arabic  Grammar,  2d  ed.,  i,  §231;  Barth.  Semitische 
Xomiiialbildungcn,  p.  163  ff. ;   Delitzsch,  Assyrian  Grammar,  p.  15S  ff. 


298     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

is  perhaps  so  called  from  the  tribal  god,  and  the  name  of  a  tribal 
god  is  probably  concrete.1 

700.  It  seems,  then,  that  for  most  if  not  all  of  the  names  of  the 
Semitic  deities  just  mentioned  abstract  senses,  though  possible,  are 
not  certain.  Noldeke  remarks  that  most  of  these  terms  are  poetical 
—  they  may  be  ornate  epithets  given  to  old  concrete  divine  figures, 
in  which  case  the  real  cults  were  attached  to  these  latter  and  not 
to  abstractions.  It  must  be  regarded  as  doubtful  whether  Semitic 
religion  created  any  abstract  deity. 

701.  Egyptian.  The  most  prominent  Egyptian  abstract  deity  is 
Maat,  '  truth.'  She  fulfilled  an  important  function  in  the  judgment- 
hall  of  Osiris  in  the  Underworld,  and  was  widely  revered,  but  had 
no  mythical  history,  and  seems  to  have  been  rather  a  quasi-philo- 
sophical creation  than  a  vital  element  of  the  Egyptian  religious 
life.  A  god  Destiny  is  mentioned,  who  generally  bestowed  a 
happy  fate.2 

702.  Roman  and  Greek.  The  most  fully  developed  form  of  this 
conception  is  found  in  the  Roman  cult.3  The  civic  genius  of  the 
Romans  led  them  to  give  prominence  to  the  maintenance  of  public 
and  private  rights ;  thus  among  their  deities  appear  public  safety 
or  salvation  (Salus  Publica),  public  faith  or  fidelity  to  engagements 
(Fides),  civic  harmony  (Concordia),  connubial  purity  (Pudicitia),  filial 
devotion  (Pietas),  the  boundary  of  property  (Terminus),  victory 
(Victoria),  liberty  (Libertas).  There  are  further  the  gods  Youth 
(Juventus  and  Juventas)  and  Desire  4  (Cupido),  perhaps  as  things 
fundamental  in  human  life.5  Fortune  (Fortuna)  is  the  mass  of 
evidence  determining  life  by  the  will  of  the  gods,  with  which  the 
utterances  of  the  gods  (Fata)  are  identical,  and  the  embodiment  of 
the  determining  agencies  is  the  Parcae.    Several  of  these  deities 

1  The  etymologies  in  Gen.  xxx,  11  ff.  are  popular.  In  "  Baal-Gad"  (Josh,  xi,  17) 
Gad  may  be  the  name  of  a  place  ;  cf.  Stade,  Gcschichte  dcs  Volkcs  Israel,  i,  271,  note. 

2  Erman,  Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion,  chap.  iii.  For  a  list  of  other  Egyptian 
gods  of  abstractions,  such  as  eternity,  life,  joy,  see  Wiedemann,  "  Religion  of  Egypt," 
in  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  v,  191. 

3  Boissier,  La  religion  romaine,  i,  4  ff . ;  Wissowa,  Religion  der  Romer,  p.  46  ff . ; 
Usener,  Gbtternamen,  p.  364  ff.  (cf.  Farnell,  in  Anthropological  Essays  presented 
to  E.  B.  Tylor) ;  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  pp.  190  f.,  341  ;  Frazer,  Adonis  Attis  Osi- 
ris, p.  169  ff .         4  Cf.  above,  §  679,  note.         5  Not  all  of  these  had  public  cults. 


GODS  299 

have  their  correspondents  in  the  Greek  theistic  system : l  Eros 
(desire)  ;  Tuche  (that  which  is  allotted  one  by  the  gods  or  by  the 
course  of  events) ;  Moira  (Aisa),  the  unification  of  all  the  powers 
that  determine  man's  destiny.  The  god  Kronos  was  by  some  im- 
properly identified  with  "  time  "  (xpoVo?).2 

703.  Aryan.  Among  the  Aryans  of  India  the  god  Kama 
(desire)  appears  to  be  identical  with  Cupido.  Some  other  abstrac- 
tions, such  as  Piety  and  Infinity,  are  akin  to  Mazdean  concep- 
tions.3 Brahma,  originally  'magical  formula/  then  'prayer,'  and 
later  'pious  thought,'  becomes  finally  Brahma,  the  all-embracing 
god.  Rta  (arta),  '  order,'  at  first,  perhaps,  the  proper  order  of  the 
sacrificial  ritual,  becomes  finally  '  moral  order  or  righteousness ' 
and  'cosmic  order.'  This  conception  is  still  more  prominent  in 
the  Avesta,4  in  which  Asha  (Order)  is  one  of  the  Amesha-spentas, 
only  inferior  to  the  supreme  god  ;  the  other  companions  of  Ahura 
Mazda  have  similar  titles  and  may  equally  be  regarded  as  the  per- 
sonalization of  abstract  ideas.5  In  the  same  category  may  be  in- 
cluded the  Mazdean  conceptions  Endless  Time  (Zrvan  Akarana) 
and  Endless  Space  (Thwasha),  which  appear  to  be  treated  in  the 
Avesta  as  personal  deities.6    The  organizers  of  the  Mazdean  faith, 

1  See  articles  in  Roscher's  Lcxikon  ("  Eros,"  "  Moira,"  and  similar  terms)  ;  on 
Phoibos,  cf.  L.  Deubner,  in  Athenische  Mitthcihtngcn,  1903. 

2  Cicero,  De  Natura  Deornm,  ii,  25. 

3  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  135  f. ;  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  pp.  191, 
243  ff. ;  Macdonell,  Vedic  Mythology,  p.  1 15  ff. 

4  Spiegel,  Eranische  Alterthwnskunde,  ii,  34  ff. ;  A.  V.  Williams  Jackson,  Iranisehc 
Religion  (in  Geiger  and  Kuhn's  Grundriss  dcr  iranischen  Philologie,  ii,  637). 

5  The  six  are:  Vohumanah  (Good  Thought  or  Good  Mind),  Khshathra  Vairya 
(Best  or  Wished-for  Righteous  Realm  or  Law),  Spenta  Armaiti  (Holy  Harmony), 
Asha  Vahista  (Perfect  Righteousness  or  Piety),  Haurvatat  (Well-being),  Ameretat 
(Immortality). 

6  On  these  and  certain  minor  divinized  conceptions  of  time  see  Spiegel,  op.  cit, 
ii,  4-17.  On  the  Hindu  personification  of  time  see  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda, 
p.  244  ff.  In  these  and  similar  cases  time,  containing  all  things,  is  conceived  of  as 
the  producer  of  all  things,  and  the  line  between  personification  and  hypostatization 
is  not  always  clearly  defined.  For  the  influence  of  astrology  on  the  deification  of  time, 
see  Cumont,  Lcs  religions  orientates  parmi  les  peuples  romains,  chap,  vii  (on  astrol- 
ogy and  magic),  p.  212  f.,  paragraph  on  new  deities,  and  notes  thereto.  Hubert,  "  La 
representation  du  temps  dans  la  religion  et  la  magie  "  (in  Melanges  de  Vhistoire  des 
religions),  p.  190,  distinguishes  between  the  notation  of  favorable  and  unfavorable 
times  (and  the  nonchronological  character  of  mythical  histories)  and  the  calendar, 
which  counts  moments  continuously. 


300     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

having  discarded  almost  all  the  old  gods,  invested  the  supreme 
god  with  certain  moral  qualities,  and  these,  by  a  natural  process 
of  thought,  were  concretized  (Ahura  Mazda  is  sometimes  included 
in  the  list  of  Amesha-spentas).  Thus  arose  a  sort  of  pantheon, 
an  echo  of  the  old  polytheism ;  but  the  history  of  the  process  of 
formulation  is  obscure.1 

704.  Most,  if  not  all,  of  the  abstract  conceptions  mentioned 
above  are  also  placed,  in  the  various  theistic  systems,  under  the 
control  of  great  gods.  Thus,  for  example,  Jupiter  is  the  guardian 
of  boundaries  and  has  the  epithet  "Terminus,"  and  Zeus  is  the 
patron  of  freedom  (Eleutherios).2  It  is,  however,  not  necessary  to 
suppose  that  the  abstractions  in  question  are  taken  from  the  func- 
tions of  the  great  gods.  Rather  these  epithets  of  the  gods  are  to 
be  explained  from  the  same  tendency  that  produced  gods  of  ab- 
stractions. It  was  the  sense  of  the  importance  of  the  boundary 
in  early  life  that  led  both  to  the  creation  of  the  god  Terminus  and 
to  the  assignment  of  the  epithet  " Terminus"  to  Jupiter.  The  desire 
or  love  that  was  so  important  an  element  in  human  life  both 
fashioned  itself  into  a  personality  and  was  put  under  the  guardian- 
ship of  a  special  deity.  Public  safety  was  a  cherished  idea  of  the 
Romans  and  was  doubtless  held  to  be  maintained  by  every  local 
or  national  god,  yet  could  none  the  less  become  an  independent 
deity.  The  data  are  not  sufficient  to  enable  us  to  determine  in  all 
cases  the  question  of  chronological  precedence  between  the  deifi- 
cation of  the  abstraction  and  the  assignment  of  the  epithet  to  a 
god.  We  know  that  in  the  later  Roman  period  abstractions  were 
personalized,  but  this  procedure  was  often  poetical  or  rhetorical.3 

705.  A  general  relation  may  be  recognized  between  the  intel- 
lectual character  of  a  people  and  the  extent  to  which  it  creates  ab- 
stract gods.    The  Semitic  peoples,  among  whom  the  development 

1  On  a  supposed  relation  between  the  Amesha-spentas  and  the  Vedic  Adityas  see 
Roth,  in  Zeitschrift  der  deutschen  morgenldndischen  Gesellsc/iaff,  vi,  69  f. ;  Macdonell, 
Vedic  Mythology,  p.  44;  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  p.  1 34  f.  Cf.  also  L.  H. 
Gray  (on  the  derivation  of  the  Amshaspands  from  material  gods),  in  Archiv  fiir 
Religionswissenschaft,  vii  (1904),  345. 

2  Cf.  J.  B.  Carter,  De  Deorum  Rommiorum  Cognominibits. 

3  Cf.  Boissier,  La  religion  romaine,  i,  9. 


GODS 


301 


of  such  gods  is  the  feeblest,  are  characterized  by  objectiveness 
of  thought,  indisposition  to  philosophical  or  psychological  analy- 
sis, and  a  maintenance  of  local  political  and  religious  organiza- 
tion ;  it  is  natural  that  they  should  construct  concrete  deities 
exclusively  or  almost  exclusively.  Egypt  also  was  objective,  and 
carried  its  demand  for  visible  objects  of  worship  to  the  point  of 
incarnating  its  gods  in  living  animals ;  such  living  gods  tend  to 
banish  pale  abstractions,  and  such  conceptions  played  an  insignifi- 
cant part  in  Egyptian  religion.  In  India,  with  its  genius  for  philo- 
sophical refinement,  we  might  expect  to  find  this  latter  class  of 
gods ;  but  Indian  thought  speedily  passed  into  the  large  panthe- 
istic and  other  generalizations  that  absorbed  the  lesser  abstractions. 
Greece  appears  to  have  had  the  combination  of  philosophy  and 
practicalness  that  favors  the  production  of  a  certain  sort  of  ab- 
stract gods,  and  a  considerable  number  of  these  it  did  produce ; x 
but  here  also  philosophy,  in  the  form  of  large  theories  of  the  con- 
stitution and  life  of  man,  got  the  upper  hand  and  repressed  the 
other  development.  The  Romans  had  no  pretensions  to  philo- 
sophic or  aesthetic  thought,  but  they  had  a  keen  sense  of  the  value 
of  family  and  civic  life,  and  great  skill  in  using  religion  for  social 
purposes.  It  is  they  among  whom  specialized  deities,  including 
abstractions,  had  the  greatest  significance  for  the  life  of  the  people 
—  family  and  State. 

706.  With  the  growth  of  general  culture  all  specialized  divini- 
ties tend  to  disappear,  absorbed  by  the  great  gods  and  displaced 
by  better  knowledge  of  the  laws  governing  the  bodily  and  men- 
tal growth  of  men.2  The  divinities  of  abstractions,  so  far  as  they 
were  really  alive,  had  the  effect  of  making  great  civic  and  religious 
ideas  familiar  to  the  people.  Later  (as  in  modern  life)  such  ideas 
were  cherished  as  the  outcome  of  reflection  on  domestic  and 
national  relations  —  in  the  earlier  period  they  were  invested  with 
sacredness  and  with  personal  power  to  inspire  and  guide.  Exactly 
what  their  ethical  influence  on  the  masses  was  it  is  hardly  possible 

1  Cf.  Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  v,  442  ff. 

2  They  survive  in  later  times  to  some  extent  in  the  form  of  patron  and  other  local 
saints,  Christian  and  Moslem. 


302      IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

to  determine ;  but  it  may  be  regarded  as  probable  that  they  helped 
to  keep  alive  certain  fundamental  conceptions  at  a  time  when  re- 
flection on  life  was  still  immature. 

Nature  Gods 

707.  The  term  "  nature  gods "  may  be  taken  as  designating 
those  deities  that  are  distinguished  on  the  one  hand  from  natural 
objects  regarded  as  divine  and  worshiped,  and  on  the  other  hand 
from  the  great  gods,  who,  whatever  their  origin,  have  been  quite 
dissociated  from  natural  objects ;  in  distinction  from  these  classes 
nature  gods  are  independent  deities  who  yet  show  traces  of  their 
origin  in  the  cult  of  natural  objects.1 

708.  These  three  classes  often  shade  into  one  another,  and  it  is 
not  always  easy  to  draw  the  lines  between  them.  It  is  worth  while, 
however,  to  keep  them  separate,  because  they  represent  different 
stadia  of  religious  and  general  culture ;  the  nature  gods  are  found 
in  societies  which  have  risen  above  the  old  crude  naturalism,  but 
have  not  yet  reached  the  higher  grade  of  intellectual  and  ethical 
distinctness.  But  as  they  are  in  a  real  sense  dissociated  from  natural 
objects,  they  tend  to  expand  as  society  grows,  and  it  is  unnecessary 
to  attempt  to  deduce  all  their  functions  from  the  characteristics  of 
the  objects  with  which  they  were  originally  connected.  In  some 
cases,  doubtless,  they  coalesce  with  the  local  clan  gods  whose 
functions  are  universal ;  and  in  general,  when  a  god  becomes  the 
recognized  deity  of  his  community,  the  tendency  is  to  ascribe  to 
him  a  great  number  of  functions  suggested  by  the  existing  social 
conditions.  In  some  cases  the  particular  function  of  the  god  may 
be  derived  from  the  function  of  the  natural  object  whence  he  is 
supposed  to  spring ;  but  the  number  and  variety  of  functions  that 
we  often  find  assigned  to  one  deity,  and  the  number  of  deities 
that  are  connected  with  a  single  function,  indicate  the  complexity 
of  the  processes  of  early  religious  thought  and  make  it  difficult  to 
trace  its  history  in  detail. 

1  Cf.  Bloomfield's  classification  of  deities  (Religion  of  the  Veda,  p.  96)  partly 
according  to  the  degree  of  clearness  with  which  characters  belonging  to  physical 
nature  appear :  "  translucent "  gods  are  those  whose  origin  in  nature  is  obvious ; 
"  transparent "  gods  are  half-personified  nature  objects. 


GODS  303 

709.  Among  natural  objects  the  heavenly  bodies,  sun,  moon,  and 
stars,  and  particularly  the  sun  and  moon,  have  very  generally 
attracted  men's  attention  and  become  objects  of  worship.  The 
deification  of  the  sun  may  be  traced  through  all  stadia  of  develop- 
ment, from  the  crudest  objectivism  to  a  highly  developed  monolatry 
or  a  virtual  monotheism.1  Veneration  of  the  physical  sun,  or  a  con- 
ception of  it  as  a  supernatural  man,  is  found  in  many  parts  of  the 
world.'2  It  has  not  been  observed,  apparently,  in  Australia,  Mela- 
nesia, Indonesia,  and  on  the  North  American  Pacific  Coast ; 3  these 
regions  are  all  backward  in  the  creation  of  gods  —  devoting  them- 
selves to  the  elaboration  of  social  organization  they  have  contented 
themselves  largely  with  an  apparatus  of  spirits  and  divine  animals. 
In  Central  and  Northern  Asia  and  among  the  Ainu  of  Jesso,  while 
there  appears  to  be  a  recognition  of  the  sun  as  divine,  it  is  difficult  to 
distinguish  real  solar  divinities.4  In  Japan  mention  is  made  of  a  sun- 
goddess  but  she  plays  an  insignificant  part  in  the  religious  system.5 

710.  The  cult  is  more  developed  in  Eastern  and  Central  North 
America,  particularly  in  the  former  region.  The  Navahos  (in  the 
center  of  the  continent)  have  a  vague  deity  of  the  sun,  but  the  cult 
is  most  prominent  among  the  Algonkin  (Lenape)  and  Natchez 
tribes  ;  the  last-named  especially  have  an  elaborate  cult  in  which  the 
sun  as  deity  seems  to  be  distinct  from  the  physical  form.6 

711.  The  highest  development  of  this  cult  in  America  was 
reached  in  Mexico  and  Peru.  In  both  these  countries,  which  had 
worked  out  a  noteworthy  civilization,  the  solar  cult  became  supreme, 
and  in  Peru  it  attained  an  ethical  and  universalistic  form  which 
entitles  it  to  rank  among  the  best  religious  systems  of  the  lower 
civilized  nations.7 

1  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  285  ff.  2  See  above,  §  32S  ff. 

8  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of Central  Australia ,  p.  561  ff.,  and  Northern 
Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  182;  Codrington,  The  Melanesians,  p.  348  ;  Roth,  in 
Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute ',  xxi,  125  ;  Boas,  The  Kwakiutl,  p.-jiof. 

4  Cf.  Batchelor,  The  Ainu  (1901),  p.  63  f.  5  Cf.  Aston,  Shinto,  p.  35. 

6  J.  G.  Miiller,  Amerikanische  Urreligionen,  p.  58,  and  Index,  s.v.  Sonnendienst '; 
Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  33  ;  Brinton,  The  Len&pe,  p.  65  (cf.  his  American 
Hero-Myths,  p.  230)  ;  Gatschct,  Migration  Legend  of  the  Creeks,  p.  216  f. 

7  Prescott,  Mexico,  i,  57  ff.;  id.,  Peru,  i,  92  ff. ;  E.  J.  Payne,  History  of  the  New 
World  called  America,  1,463,  550  ff.;  C.  R.  Markham,  The  Ineas  of  Peru,  pp.  63, 
67,  104  ff. 


304     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

712.  The  Egyptians,  with  their  more  advanced  civilization,  finally 
carried  sun-worship  to  a  very  high  point  of  perfection.  The 
hymns  to  Ra,  the  sun-god,  reached  the  verge  of  monotheism  and 
are  ethically  high,  yet  traces  of  the  physical  side  of  the  sun  appear 
throughout.1  The  same  thing  is  true  of  the  old  Semitic  sun-cult. 
The  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  Shamash  is  in  certain  respects  an 
independent  deity  with  universal  attributes,  but  retains  also  some 
of  the  physical  characteristics  of  the  sun.2  In  Africa,  outside  of 
Egypt,  the  only  trace  of  an  independent  sun-god  appears  to  be  in 
Dahomi,  where,  however,  he  is  not  prominent;  why  such  a  god 
should  not  be  found  in  the  neighboring  countries  of  Ashanti  and 
Yoruba  is  not  clear;  climatic  conditions  would  affect  all  these 
countries  alike.3 

713.  In  the  Veda  the  sun-god  Savitar  has  a  very  distinguished 
position  as  ethical  deity,  but  earlier  than  he  the  similar  figure  Surya 
represents  more  nearly  the  physical  sun,  and  this  is  true  perhaps 
also  of  Mitra.4  With  the  latter  it  is  natural  to  compare  the  Avestan 
Mithra ;  he  is  held  by  some  to  have  been  originally  a  god  of  light, 
but  he  seems  also  to  have  characteristics  of  the  sun  in  the  Avesta,5 
and  in  late  Persian  the  word  mihr  ('  sun ')  indicates  that  he  was  at 
any  rate  finally  identified  with  the  sun.  It  is  noteworthy  that  a  dis- 
tinct sun-worship  is  reported  among  certain  non-Aryan  tribes  of 
India,  particularly  the  Khonds ; 6  this  cult  may  be  compared  with 
that  of  the  Natchez  mentioned  above,7  though  the  Khonds  are  less 
socially  advanced  than  these  American  tribes. 

714.  The  cultic  history  of  the  moon  is  similar  to  that  of  the 
sun,  but  in  general  far  less  important.  In  addition  to  its  charm 
as  illuminer  of  the  night,  it  has  been  prominent  as  a  measurer  of 
time  —  lunar  calendars  appear  among  many  tribes  and  nations, 
uncivilized  (Maoris,  Hawaiians,  Dahomi,  Ashanti  and  Yorubans, 
Nandi,  Congo  tribes,  Bantu,  Todas,  and  others)  and  civilized 
(the   early  Babylonians,    Assyrians,    Hebrews,   Greeks,    Romans, 

1  Records  of  the  Past,  first  series,  ii,  129  ff. ;  viii,  105  ff. 

2  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  71.  3  A.  B.  Ellis,  Ewe,  p.  65. 
4  Macdonell,  Vedic  Mythology,  pp.30,  32,  29,  cf.  p.  23  ;  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the 

Veda,  p.  86  ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  40  ff.  5  Yasht  x,  67. 

6  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  529  f.  "  §  710. 


GODS  305 

perhaps  the  early  Egyptians,  and  now  all  Mohammedan  peoples). 
Naturally  it  has  been  associated  with  the  sun  in  myths,  standing 
to  it  in  the  relation  of  brother  or  sister,  husband  or  wife.  Among 
existing  noncivilized  peoples  it  sometimes  receives  worship  as  a 
god x  or  as  connected  with  a  god.'2  In  these  cases  it  retains  to  a 
great  extent  its  character  as  an  object  of  nature.  So  the  Greek 
Selene  and  the  Roman  Luna,  standing  alongside  of  the  lunar 
gods  proper,  probably  indicate  an  early  imperfect  deification  of 
the  moon. 

715.  Though  the  stars  were  generally  regarded,  both  among 
savages  and  in  ancient  civilized  communities,  as  animated  (pos- 
sessed of  souls),  and  in  a  sort  divine,3  instances  of  the  deification 
proper  of  particular  stellar  bodies  are  rare.  In  Egypt  they  were 
reverenced,  but  apparently  not  worshiped.4  The  Babylonian  astron- 
omers and  astrologers  began  early  to  connect  the  planets  with 
the  great  gods  (Jupiter  with  Marduk,  Venus  with  Ishtar,  etc.),  and 
stars,  like  other  heavenly  bodies,  were  held  by  them  to  be  divine, 
but  a  specific  divinization  of  a  star  or  planet  does  not  appear  in 
the  known  literature.5  The  same  thing  is  true  of  China,  where, 
it  may  be  supposed,  reverence  for  the  stars  was  included  in  the 
general  high  position  assigned  to  Heaven.6  In  the  Aryan  Hindu 
cults  stars  were  revered,  and  by  the  non-Aryan  Gonds  were  wor- 
shiped, but  there  is  no  star-god  proper.7 

716.  In  the  Old  Testament  and  the  Apocrypha  there  are  pas- 
sages in  which  stars  and  planets  are  referred  to  in  a  way  that 
indicates  some  sort  of  a  conception  of  them  as  divine  :  they  are 
said  to  have  fought  against  Israel's  enemies,  and  in  the  later  liter- 
ature they  are  (perhaps  by  a  poetical  figure  of  speech)  identified 

1  W.  Crooke,  Popular  Religion  and  Folklore  of  Northern  India,  i,  12  ff. ;  Journal 
of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  xviii,  373  ff.  (the  Lurka  Coles)  ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of 
India  (Dravidians,  Kolarians)  ;  and  for  a  modern,  more  civilized  cult  see  Hopkins, 
op.  cit.,  p.  480,  note  3  ;  Payne,  History  of  the  New  World  called  America,  i,  546  ff. 

2  Turner,  Samoa,  Index,  s.v.  Moon ;  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  pp.  S6,  226. 

3  See  above,  §  328  ff. ;  cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  290  f. 

4  Erman,  Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion,  pp.  88,  91. 

5  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  pp.  356  ff.,  457. 

G  De  Groot,  Religion  of  the  Chinese,  p.  5  (cf.  J.  Edkins,  Religion  in  China,  p.  105  ff.). 
7  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  pp.  204,  266,  526. 


306     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

with  foreign  deities  or  with  angels.1  But  there  is  no  sign  of  Israel- 
ite worship  offered  them  till  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  when,  on  the 
irruption  of  Assyrian  cults,  incense  is  said  to  have  been  burned 
in  the  Jerusalem  temple  to  the  mazzalot  (probably  the  signs  of 
the  zodiac)  and  to  all  the  host  of  heaven  (the  stars) ; 2  and  there 
is  still  no  creation  of  a  star-god.3  The  early  Hebrews  may  have 
practiced  some  sort  of  star-worship  ;  there  are  traces  of  such  a 
cult  among  their  neighbors  the  Arabs. 

717.  The  Arab  personal  name  Abd  ath-thuraiya,  '  servant  (wor- 
shiper) of  the  Pleiades,'  testifies  to  a  real  cult,4  though  how  far 
it  involves  a  conception  of  the  constellation  as  a  true  individual 
deity  it  may  be  difficult  to  say.  It  has  been  supposed  that  the 
pre-Islamic  Arabs  worshiped  the  planet  Venus  under  the  name 
Al-Uzza,5  but  this  is  not  certain.  It  is  true  that  they  worshiped 
the  morning  star,  and  that  ancient  non-Arab  writers  identified  the 
planet  with  Al-Uzza  because  it  was  with  this  goddess  that  the 
Roman  goddess  Venus  was  generally  identified  by  foreigners. 
But  Al-Uzza  was  an  old  Arabian  local  deity  who  gradually  assumed 
great  power  and  influence,  and  it  is  certain  that  she  could  not  have 
been  originally  a  star.  It  must,  therefore,  be  considered  doubtful 
whether  the  Arabs  had  a  true  star-god. 

718.  A  well-defined  instance  of  such  a  god  is  the  Avestan 
Tistrya.6  His  origin  as  an  object  of  nature  appears  plainly  in  his 
functions  —  he  is  especially  a  rain-god,  and,  as  such,  a  source  of 
all  blessings.  Alongside  of  him  stand  three  less  well  defined  stellar 
Powers.  The  Greeks  and  Romans  adopted  from  Chaldean  astron- 
omy the  nominal  identification  of  the  planets  with  certain  gods 
(their  own  divine  names  being  substituted  for   the   Babylonian) ; 

1  Judg.  v,  20  ;  Isa.  xxiv,  21  if.;  Job  xxxviii,  7  ;  Enoch  xviii,  12  ;  xxi,  1  (cf.  Rev.  ix,  1) ; 
cf.  Neh.  ix,  6.  See  Baudissin,  Scmitische  Rcligionsgcschichtc,  i,  n8ff. ;  article  "As- 
tronomy and  Astrology  "  in  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible.  2  2  Kings  xxiii,  5. 

3  The  corrupt  and  obscure  passage  Amos  v,  26,  cannot  be  cited  as  proving  a 
cult  of  a  deity  Kaiwan  (Masoretic  text  Kiyyun,  Eng.  R.V.  "shrine")  identical  with 
Assyrian  kaiwan  or  kaiman,  the  planet  Saturn  ;  there  is  no  evidence  that  this  planet 
was  worshiped  in  Assyria.       4  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  i,  660. 

5  Cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia,  chap,  vi,  note  8  ;  Hast- 
ings, Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  loc.  cit. 

6  Spiegel,  Eranische  Alterthmnskunde,  ii,  70  ff. 


GODS  307 

this  did  not  necessarily  carry  with  it  stellar  worship,1  but  at  a  late 
period  there  was  a  cult  of  the  constellations.2 

To  some  savage  and  half-civilized  peoples  the  rainbow  has 
appeared  to  be  a  living  thing,  capable  of  acting  on  man's  life, 
sometimes  friendly,  sometimes  unfriendly.3  It  figures  largely  in 
myths,  but  is  not  treated  as  a  god. 

The   Great   Gods 

719.  Along  with  the  deities  described  above  there  is  a  class  of 
higher  gods  with  well-defined  personalities,  standing  quite  outside 
physical  nature  and  man,  with  definite  characters,  and  humanized 
in  the  higher  sense.  In  contrast  with  the  bizarre  or  barbarous 
anthropomorphic  forms  of  the  earlier  deities  these  have  the  shape 
of  refined  humanity,  capable  of  taking  part  in  the  life  of  the  best 
men ;  they  are  the  embodiment  of  a  reflective  conception  of  the 
relations  between  men  and  the  great  world.  Inchoate  divine  forms 
of  this  sort  may  be  recognized  among  certain  half-civilized  commu- 
nities, but  in  their  full  form  they  are  found  only  among  civilized 
peoples,  being  indeed  the  product  of  civilization ;  and  among  such 
peoples  they  exist  in  varying  degrees  of  approach  to  completeness. 

720.  The  process  of  growth  from  the  clan  deities  and  the  nature 
gods  up  to  these  higher  forms  may  be  traced  with  some  definite- 
ness  in  the  great  civilized  nations  of  antiquity.  We  can  see  that 
there  has  been  a  scientific  movement  of  separation  of  gods  from 
phenomena.  There  is  the  distinct  recognition  not  only  of  the  dif- 
ference between  man  and  physical  nature,  but  also  of  the  difference 
between  phenomena  and  the  powers  that  control  them.4  At  the 
same  time  there  is  an  increasing  belief  in  the  predominance  of 
reason  in  the  government  of  the  world,  and  along  with  this  a  larger 
conception  of  the  greatness  of  the  world  and  finally  of  its  unity. 
Artistic  feeling  cooperates  in  the  change  of  the  character  of  divine 

1  Cf.  Gruppe,  Gricchische  Mythologic,  Index,  s.vv.  Stern  and  Sternbilder. 

2  Cumont,  Lcs  religions  orientates  fanni  les peuples  romains,  chap  vii. 

3  The  Franciscan  Fathers,  Ethnologic  Dictionary  of  the  Navaho  Language,  Index, 
s.v. ;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  293  f. 

4  This  is  the  full  development  of  what  had  doubtless  been  felt  vaguely  from  the 
beginning  of  religious  history. 


308     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

beings  —  the  necessity  of  giving  symmetry  and  clearness  to  their 
persons,  whereby  they  more  and  more  assume  the  form  of  the 
highest  human  ideals.  Necessarily  the  ethical  element  advances 
hand  in  hand  with  the  intellectual  and  artistic ;  it  becomes  more  and 
more  difficult  to  conceive  of  gods  as  controlled  by  motives  lower 
than  those  recognized  by  the  best  men. 

721.  This  general  progress  of  thought  is  in  some  cases  embodied 
in  the  conception  of  a  succession  of  dynasties  —  one  set  of  gods 
is  overthrown  or  succeeded  by  another  set ;  the  most  extreme  form 
of  the  overthrow  appears  in  the  conception  of  the  death  of  a 
whole  community  of  gods,  but  this  occurs  not  in  the  form  of  natural 
development,  but  only  when  one  stadium  or  phase  of  religion  is 
overmastered  and  expelled  by  another. 

722.  In  Babylonia  the  earliest  pair  of  deities,  Lakhmu  and 
Lakhamu,  vague  forms,  were  succeeded  by  a  second  pair,  Anshar 
and  Kishar,  somewhat  less  vague,  and  these  in  their  turn  yielded 
to  the  more  definite  group  represented  by  Ea,  Bel,  and  Marduk  — 
deities  who  became  the  embodiments  of  the  highest  Babylonian 
culture ;  in  Assyria  Ashur  and  Ishtar  occupied  a  similar  position. 
In  the  long  religious  history  of  the  Hindus  many  of  the  gods 
prominent  in  the  Veda  disappear  or  sink  into  subordinate  positions, 
and  deities  at  first  unimportant  become  supreme.  The  Greek  suc- 
cession of  dynasties  resembles  the  Babylonian.  The  ancient  Heaven 
and  Earth  are  followed  by  Kronos,1  and  he  is  dethroned  by  Zeus, 
who  represents  governmental  order  and  a  higher  ethical  scheme  of 
society.  The  Romans  appear  to  have  borrowed  their  chronology 
of  the  gods  from  the  Greeks :  the  combination  of  Saturnus  with 
Ops  (who  belongs  rather  with  Consus),  the  identification  of  these 
two  respectively  with  Kronos  and  Rhea,  and  the  dynastic  succes- 
sion Caelus,2  Saturnus,  Jupiter,  seem  not  to  be  earlier  than  the 
Hellenizing  period  in  Rome. 

723.  These  changes,  when  original,  may  have  been  due  partly  to 
the  shifting  of  political  power  —  the  gods  of  a  particular  dominant 

1  On  Kronos  and  the  Titans  cf .  article  "  Kronos  "  in  Roscher's  Lexikon. 

2  Caelus  (or  Caelum)  was  sometimes  called  the  son  of  iEther  and  Dies  (Cicero, 
De  Natura  Deontm,  iii,  17,  24). 


GODS  309 

region  may  have  come  into  prominence  and  reigned  for  a  time, 
giving  place  then  to  deities  of  some  other  region  which  had  secured 
the  hegemony ;  the  history  of  the  earliest  gods  lies  far  back  in  a 
dim  region  without  historical  records  and  therefore  is  not  to  be 
reconstructed  definitely  now.  But  such  light  as  we  get  from  liter- 
ary records  of  later  times  rather  suggests  that  the  dynastic  changes 
are  the  product  of  changes  in  the  conception  of  the  world,  and  these 
are  as  a  rule  in  the  direction  of  sounder  and  more  humane  thought. 

724.  There  is  a  general  similarity  between  the  great  deities  that 
have  been  created  by  the  various  civilized  peoples,  since  civilization 
has  been  practically  the  same  everywhere.  But  the  gods  differ 
among  themselves  according  to  the  special  characters,  needs,  and 
endowments  of  the  various  peoples,  so  that  no  deity  can  be  profitably 
studied  without  a  knowledge  of  the  physical  and  mental  conditions 
of  the  community  in  which  he  arose.  But  everywhere  we  find  that 
any  one  god  may  become  practically  supreme.  Here  again  the 
political  element  sometimes  comes  in  —  a  dominant  city  or  state 
will  impose  its  special  god  on  a  large  district.  There  is  also  the 
natural  tendency  among  men  to  concentrate  on  an  individual  figure. 
As  legendary  material  has  always  gathered  around  particular  men, 
so  the  great  attributes  of  divinity  gather  about  the  person  of  a 
particular  god  who,  for  whatever  reason,  is  the  most  prominent 
divine  figure  in  a  given  community.  Such  a  god  becomes  for  the 
moment  supreme,  to  the  exclusion  of  other  deities  who  under  dif- 
ferent circumstances  might  have  had  similar  claims  to  precedence  ; 
and  under  favorable  conditions  a  deity  thus  raised  to  the  highest  posi- 
tion may  maintain  himself  and  end  by  becoming  the  sole  deity  of  his 
people  and  of  the  world.  In  any  case  such  a  divine  figure  becomes 
an  ideal,  and  thus  influences  more  or  less  the  life  of  his  worshipers. 

725.  In  Oriental  polytheistic  systems  the  desire  to  secure  com- 
pleteness in  the  representation  of  divine  activity  shows  itself  in  the 
combination  of  two  or  more  forms  into  a  unity  of  action.  On  the 
lower  level  we  have  the  composite  figures  of  Egypt  and  Babylonia, 
congeries  of  bodies,  heads,  and  limbs,  human  and  nonhuman  —  the 
result  partly  of  the  survival  of  ancient  (sometimes  outgrown)  forms 
or  the  fusion  of  local  deities,  partly  of  the  imaginative  collocation 


310     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

of  attributes.  Many  compound  names  may  be  explained  in  this 
way ;  in  some  cases  they  seem  to  arise  from  accidental  local  rela- 
tions of  cults. 

As  illustrations  of  lines  of  growth  in  divine  figures  we  may  take 
brief  biographies  of  some  of  the  greater  gods.  It  is  in  compara- 
tively few  cases  that  the  development  of  a  god's  character  can  be 
satisfactorily  traced.  There  are  no  records  of  beginnings  —  we  can 
only  make  what  may  be  judged  to  be  probable  inferences  from 
names,  cults,  and  functions.  The  difficulty  of  the  subject  is  increased 
by  the  fact  that  mythologians  and  theologians  have  obscured  early 
conceptions  by  new  combinations  and  interpretations,  often  em- 
ploying familiar  divine  figures  simply  as  vehicles  of  late  philosophical 
ideas  or  some  other  sort  of  local  dogmas. 

726.  Egypt}  The  cult  of  the  sun  in  Egypt  issued  in  the  creation 
of  a  group  of  solar  divinities,  the  most  important  of  whom  are 
Horus  (Har  or  Hor)  and  Ra  (or  Re). 

Horus  appears  to  have  been  the  great  god  of  united  Egypt  in 
the  earliest  times  about  which  we  have  information.  The  kings  of 
the  predynastic  and  early  dynastic  periods  are  called  "  worshipers 
of  Horus,"  a  title  that  was  adopted  by  succeeding  monarchs,  who 
had  each  his  "  Horus  name."  2  He  was  also  the  special  patron  of 
some  small  communities  —  a  fact  that  has  been  variously  inter- 
preted as  indicating  that  the  god's  movement  was  from  local  to  general 
patron,3  or  that  it  was  in  the  opposite  direction  4 ;  the  former  of 
these  hypotheses  is  favored  by  what  appears  elsewhere  in  such 
changes  in  the  positions  of  deities.  As  Horus  is  always  connected 
with  light  he  may  have  been  originally  a  local  sun-god ;  it  is  pos- 
sible, however,  that  he  was  a  clan  god  with  general  functions,  who 
was  brought  into  association  with  the  sun  by  the  natural  progress 
of  thought.    In  any  case  he  became  a  great  sun-god,  but  yielded 

1  Ed.  Meyer,  Gcschichte  des  Altai  Aegyptcns  (and  cf.  his  Gcschichte  des  Alter- 
tums,  2d  ed.);  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civilization;  Wiedemann,  Religion  of  the  Ancient 
Egyptians,  and  article  "  Religion  of  Egypt "  in  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible, 
vol.  v;  Erman,  Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion;  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt. 

2  Breasted,  op  cit.,  pp.  36,  46  ;  id.,  Ancient  Records  of  Egypt,  under  the  various 
kings.  3  So  Ed.  Meyer,  in  article  "  Horos  "  in  Roscher's  Lexikon. 

4  So  Steindorff,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  26  f. 


GODS  3  1 1 

his  position  of  eminence  to  Ra.  The  myth  of  his  conflict  with  Set, 
the  representative  of  darkness,  is  probably  a  priestly  dualistic  con- 
struction, resting,  perhaps,  on  a  political  situation  (the  struggle  be- 
tween the  North  and  the  South  of  the  Egyptian  territory).1 

727.  The  general  development  of  Ra  is  plain,  though  details  are 
lacking.  It  may  be  inferred  from  his  name  (which  means  '  sun ') 
that  he  was  originally  the  physical  sun.  Traces  of  his  early  crude- 
ness  appear  in  the  stories  of  his  destruction  of  mankind,  and  of 
the  way  in  which  Isis,  by  a  trick,  got  from  him  his  true  name  and, 
with  it,  his  power."  With  the  growth  of  his  native  land  (Lower 
Egypt)  he  became  the  great  lord  of  the  sun,  and  finally  universal 
lord  ; 3  his  supremacy  was  doubtless  due  in  part  to  the  political  im- 
portance of  On  (Heliopolis),  the  seat  of  his  chief  shrine.  What 
other  circumstances  contributed  to  his  victory  over  Horus  are  not 
recorded ;  in  general  it  may  be  supposed  that  political-  changes 
occasioned  the  recedence  of  the  latter. 

The  primacy  of  Ra  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  Amon  was  iden- 
tified with  him.  Amon,  originally  the  local  god  of  Thebes,4  became 
great  in  the  South  as  Ra  became  great  in  the  North,  rising  with  the 
growth  of  the  Theban  kingdom.  His  hold  on  the  people,  and  par- 
ticularly (as  was  natural)  on  the  priests,  is  shown  in  a  noteworthy 
way  by  the  episode  of  Amenhotep  IV's  attempt  to  supplant  him 
by  establishing  a  substantially  monotheistic  cult  of  the  sun-god 
Aton;  the  attempt  was  successful  only  during  the  king's  life  —  after 
his  death  Amon,  under  the  vigorous  leadership  of  the  Theban 
priests,  resumed  his  old  position  and  maintained  it  until  the  first 
break-up  of  the  national  Egyptian  government.  But  it  was  Amon- 
Ra  that  became  supreme  from  the  fourteenth  century  onward.  The 
combination  of  the  names  was  made  possible  by  the  social  and 
political  union  of  the  two  divisions  of  the  land,  and  it  was  Ra  who 
gave  special  glory  to  Amon.5 

1  Cf.  Steindorff,  op.  cit.,  p.  30  f. 

2  Records  of  the  Past,  vi,  105  ff.  ;  Steindorff,  op.  cit.,  p.  107  ff. 

•  8  See,  for  example,  the  hymn  in  Records  of  the  Past,  viii,  105  ff. 

4  He  was,  therefore,  doubtless  a  god  of  fertility. 

5  Records  of  the  Past,  ii,  129  ff.  The  names  of  other  deities  also  were  combined 
with  that  of  Ra. 


312      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

728.  A  different  line  of  growth  appears  in  the  history  of  Osiris 
—  he  owed  his  eminence  mainly  to  his  connection  with  the  dead. 
Where  his  cult  arose  is  not  known  ;  he  was  a  very  old  god,  possibly 
prominent  in  the  predynastic  period  j1  at  a  later  time  the  impor- 
tance of  Abydos,  the  chief  seat  of  his  worship,  may  have  added  to 
his  reputation.  But  the  ceremonies  of  his  cult  and  the  myths  that 
grew  up  about  his  name  indicate  that  he  was  originally  a  deity  of 
vegetation,  the  patron  of  the  underground  productive  forces  of  the 
earth,  and  so,  naturally,  he  became  the  lord  of  the  Underworld,2 
and  eventually  (as  ethical  conceptions  of  life  became  more  definite 
in  Egypt)  the  embodiment  of  future  justice,  the  determiner  of  the 
moral  character  and  the  everlasting  fate  of  men.  Why  he  and  not 
some  other  underground  god  became  Underworld  judge  the  data 
do  not  make  clear.  His  association  with  the  death  and  revivifica- 
tion of  plants  gave  a  peculiarly  human  character  to  his  mythical 
biography  and  a  dramatic  and  picturesque  tone  to  his  cult.3  Of 
all  ancient  lords  of  the  Otherworld  it  is  Osiris  that  shows  the  most 
continuous  progress  and  reaches  the  highest  ethical  plane  —  a  fact 
that  must  be  referred  to  the  intense  interest  of  the  Egyptians  in 
the  future.4 

729.  The  three  most  prominent  female  deities  of  the  Egyptian 
pantheon,  Hathor  of  Dendera,  Neith  (Nit,  Neit)  of  Sais,  and  Isis 
of  Buto,  exhibit  one  and  the  same  type  of  character,  and  each  is 
occasionally  identified  with  one  of  the  others.  Hathor  was  widely 
worshiped,  but  was  not  otherwise  especially  noteworthy.  The 
famous  inscription  said  to  have  stood  in  the  temple  of  Neith  at  Sais 
("What  is  and  what  shall  be  and  what  has  been  am  I  —  my  veil 
no  one  has  lifted  " 5)  seems  not  to  be  immediately  connected  with 

1  Egyptian  civilization,  as  appears  from  recent  explorations,  began  far  back  of 
Menes ;  cf.  Ed.  Meyer,  Gcschichte  des  Alteriums,  2d  ed.,  vol.  i,  part  ii,  §  169. 

2  Cf.  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  58  ;  Frazer,  Adonis  Attis  Osiris,  bk.  iii,  chap.  v. 

3  Plutarch,  Isis  and  Osiris,  18 ;  Frazer,  loc.  cit. ;  Breasted,  op.  cit.,  p.  171  f. 

4  His  identification  by  some  ancient  theologians  with  the  sun  (Frazer,  op.  cit., 
p.  351  f.)  or  with  the  moon  (Plutarch,  op.  cit.,  41)  is  an  illustration  of  the  late  tend- 
ency to  identify  any  great  god  with  a  heavenly  body. 

•5  Such  is  the  wording  given  by  Proclus.  The  form  in  Plutarch  (Isis  and  Osiris,  9) 
is  substantially  the  same  :  ,;Iam  all  that  has  been  and  that  is  and  that  shall  be,  and 
my  veil  no  mortal  has  lifted."  See  Roscher,  Lexikon,  article  "  Nit,"  col.  436.  Doubts 
have  been  cast  on  the  reality  of  the  alleged  inscription. 


GODS  313 

any  important  religions  movement,  though  it  is  in  keeping  with  the 
liberal  and  mystical  tendency  of  the  later  time.  The  third  goddess, 
Isis,  had  a  more  remarkable  history.  Her  beginnings  are  obscure, 
and  she  appears  in  the  inscriptions  later  than  the  other  two.  She 
may  have  been  a  local  deity,1  brought  into  association  with  Osiris 
(as  his  sister  or  his  wife)  through  the  collocation  of  their  cults,  and 
thus  sharing  his  popularity  ;  or  she  may  have  been  a  late  theological 
creation."  Whatever  her  origin,  as  early  as  the  sixteenth  century  B.C. 
she  appears  as  a  great  magician  (poisoning  and  healing  Ra  by  magic 
arts),3  then  (along  with  Osiris)  as  civilizer,  and  finally  as  model  wife 
and  mother,  and  as  serene  and  beneficent  mistress  of  the  land.  It 
was,  apparently,  in  this  last  character  that  she  became  the  gathering- 
point  for  the  higher  religious  and  ethical  ideas  of  the  time,  and  the 
central  figure  in  a  religious  scheme  that  was  widely  adopted  in  and 
out  of  Egypt  and  seemed  to  be  a  formidable  rival  of  Christianity.4 

730.  India.  It  is  in  India  that  we  find  the  most  varied  and  most 
sweeping  development  in  the  functions  and  positions  of  deities  — 
a  result  due  in  part  to  the  long-continued  movement  of  philosophic 
thought,  partly  to  changes  in  the  popular  religious  point  of  view 
occasioned  by  modifications  of  the  social  life.5 

The  etymology  of  the  name  Varuna  is  doubtful,  but  the  repre- 
sentation of  him  in  the  Rig-Veda  points  to  the  sky  as  his  original 
form  —  he  is  a  clear  example  of  a  sky-god  who  becomes  universal. 
Of  his  earliest  history  wTe  have  no  information  —  in  the  most  ancient 
records  he  is  already  fully  formed.  In  the  Rig-Veda  he  embraces 
the  whole  of  life  —  he  is  absolute  ruler  and  moral  governor,  he 
punishes  sin  and  forgives  the  penitent.  In  conjunction  with  Mitra 
he  is  the  lord  of  order.6  Mitra,  originally  the  physical  sun,  is  natu- 
rally associated  with  Varuna,  but  in  the  Rig-Veda  occupies  a  gener- 
ally subordinate  position,  though  he  appears  sometimes  to  have  the 

1  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civilization,  p.  131. 

2  So  Ed.  Meyer,  in  Roscher,  Lcxikon,  article  "  Isis,"  col.  360. 

3  Steindorff,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  107  ff. 

4  See  Drexler,  in  Roscher,  Lcxikon,  article  "  Isis,"  col.  424  ff. 

5  Barth,  The  Religions  of  India  (Eng.  tr.)  ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India;  Hille- 
brandt,  Vcdischc  Mythologic ;  Macdonell,  Vcdic  Mythology,  Bloomfield,  Religion  of 
the  Veda.   See  the  bibliography  in  Hopkins,  op.  cit.,  p.  573  ff. 

6  Rig-Veda,  viii,  41,  1.  7  ;  i,  23,  5  (rla,  '  order'). 


314     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

attributes  of  his  associate  ;  the  two  together  embody  a  lofty  ethical 
conception.  In  accordance  with  the  Hindu  fondness  for  metaphys- 
ical abstractions  and  generalizations  the  nature  god  Varuna  in  the 
course  of  time  yielded  the  primacy  to  Prajapati,  '  lord  of  beings,' 1 
who  in  his  turn  gave  way  to  the  impersonal  Brahma.  In  the  popu- 
lar cults  as  well  as  in  philosophical  systems  Varuna  sank  (or  perhaps 
returned)  to  the  position  of  patron  of  phenomena  of  nature  —  there 
was  no  longer  need  of  him. 

731.  A  god  of  somewhat  uncertain  moral  character  is  Indra, 
who  as  a  nature  god  is  closely  connected  with  the  violent  phenom- 
ena of  the  air  (rain,  thunder,  and  lightning).  In  this  relation  he  is 
often  terrible,  often  beneficent,  but  with  low  tastes  that  it  is  difficult 
to  explain.  His  fondness  for  soma,  without  which  he  attempts 
nothing, is  perhaps  a  priestly  touch,  a  glorification  of  the  drink  that 
played  so  important  a  part  in  the  ritual ;  or  he  may  herein  be  an 
expression  of  popular  tastes.  The  sensuous  character  of  the  heaven 
of  which  he  (as  air-god)  is  lord  arose  doubtless  in  response  to  early 
conceptions  of  happiness  ; 2  it  is  not  unlike  the  paradise  of  Moham- 
med, which  is  to  be  regarded  not  as  immoral,  but  only  as  the  embodi- 
ment of  the  existing  conception  of  happy  family  life.  Yet  Indra  also 
became  a  universal  god,  the  controller  of  all  things,  and  it  was  per- 
haps due  to  his  multiform  human  character  as  warrior  and  rain- 
giver3  (in  his  victorious  conflict  with  the  cloud-dragon),  and  as 
representative  of  bodily  enjoyment,  that  he  became  the  favorite  god 
of  the  people.  It  is  not  hard  to  understand  why  Agni,  fire,  should 
be  associated  with  him  and  share  his  popularity  to  some  extent ; 
but  the  importance  of  fire  in  the  sacrifice  gave  Agni  a  peculiar 
prominence  in  the  ritual. 

732.  The  most  curious  case  of  transformation  and  exaltation  is 
found  in  the  history  of  Soma,  at  first  a  plant  whose  juice  was 
intoxicating,  then  a  means  of  ecstatic  excitement,  a  gift  to  the  gods, 

1  Rig-  Veda,  x,  1 2 1 . 

2  Early  imagination  apparently  connected  the  future  social  life  of  gods  and  men 
not  with  the  calm  sky,  but  with  the  upper  region  that  was  the  scene  of  constant  and 
awful  movements.  But  the  ground  of  the  choice  of  Indra  as  lord  of  heaven  rests  in 
the  obscurity  of  primeval  times. 

3  For  economic  reasons  a  rain-god  must  generally  be  prominent  and  popular. 


GODS  3 i 5 

the  drink  of  the  gods,  and  finally  itself  a  god  invested  with  the 
greatest  attributes.  This  divinization  of  a  drink  was  no  doubt 
mainly  priestly  —  it  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the  power  of  the 
association  of  ideas,  and  belongs  in  the  same  general  category  with 
the  deification  of  abstractions  spoken  of  above.1 

733.  An  example  of  a  god  leaping  from  an  inferior  position  to 
the  highest  place  in  the  pantheon  is  afforded  by  Vishnu,  a  nature 
god  of  some  sort,  described  in  the  early  documents  as  traversing 
the  universe  in  three  strides.  Relatively  insignificant  in  the  earlier 
period  and  in  the  Upanishads,  he  appears  in  the  epic,  and  afterwards, 
as  the  greatest  of  the  gods,  and,  in  the  form  of  his  avatar  Krishna, 
becomes  the  head  of  a  religion  which  has  often  been  compared  with 
Christianity  in  the  purity  of  its  moral  conceptions.  By  his  side  in 
this  later  time  stands  his  rival  (Jiva,  the  chief  figure  in  a  sect 
or  system  which  shared  with  Vishnuism  the  devotion  of  the  later 
Hindus.  The  rise  of  these  two  gods  is  to  be  referred  probably  to 
the  dissatisfaction  in  the  later  times  with  the  phenomenal  character 
which  still  clung,  in  popular  feeling,  to  the  older  deities.  Varuna, 
once  supreme,  sank  after  a  while  to  the  position  of  a  god  of  rain, 
and  Indra,  Agni,  and  Soma  were  frankly  naturalistic,  while  the 
impersonal  Brahma  was  too  vague  to  meet  popular  demands.  What 
the  later  generation  wanted  was  a  god  personal  and  divorced  from 
physical  phenomena,  supreme,  ethically  high,  but  invested  with 
warm  humanity.  These  conditions  were  fulfilled  by  Vishnu  and 
Qiva,  and  particularly  by  Krishna ;  that  is,  the  later  thought  con- 
structed these  new  deities  in  accordance  with  the  demand  of  the 
higher  and  the  lower  religious  feeling  of  the  time  :  the  two  sides  of 
the  human  demand,  the  genial  and  the  terrible,  are  embodied,  the 
first  in  Vishnu,  the  second  in  (Jiva. 

734.  The  primeval  pair,  Heaven  and  Earth,  though  represented 
as  the  parents  of  many  gods  and  worshiped  with  sacrifices,  play 
no  great  part  in  the  Hindu  religious  system.  Dyaus,  the  Sky, 
never  attained  the  proportions  of  the  formally  identical  Zeus  and 
Jupiter.  His  attributes  are  distinctly  those  of  the  physical  sky. 
The  higher  role  is  assigned  to  Varuna,  who  is  the  sky  conceived 

1  §  703. 


316     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

of  as  a  divine  Power  divorced  from  merely  physical  character- 
istics ; l  the  mass  of  phenomena  connected  with  the  sky  (thunder, 
lightning,  and  such  like)  are  isolated  and  referred  to  various 
deities.  Prithivi,  the  Earth,  in  like  manner,  retains  her  physical  at- 
tributes, and  does  not  become  the  nourishing  mother  of  all  things.2 

With  a  partial  exception  in  the  case  of  Ushas3  (Dawn)  the 
early  Hindu  pantheon  contains  no  great  female  figure ;  there  are 
female  counterparts  of  male  deities,  but  no  such  transcendent 
personages  as  I  sis,  Athene,  and  Demeter.  Whether  this  fact  is  to 
be  explained  from  early  Hindu  views  of  the  social  position  of 
women,  or  from  some  other  idea,  is  uncertain.  In  certain  mod- 
ern religious  cults,  however,  the  worship  of  the  female  principle 
(Qakti)  is  popular  and  influential.  It  is  probable  that  in  early 
times  every  tribe  or  district  had  its  female  divine  representative 
of  fertility,  an  embryonic  mother-goddess.  If  the  Aryan  Hindus 
had  such  a  figure,  she  failed  to  grow  into  a  great  divinity.  But 
the  worship  of  such  deities  came  into  Aryan  India  at  a  relatively 
recent  date,  apparently  from  non-Aryan  sources,  and  has  been 
incorporated  in  Hindu  systems.  Various  forms  of  Qakti  have 
been  brought  into  relation  with  various  gods,  the  most  important 
being  those  that  have  become  attached  to  the  worship  of  Qiva.4 
To  him  is  assigned  as  wife  the  frightful  figure  called  Durga  or 
Kali  (and  known  by  other  names),  a  blood-loving  monster  with 
an  unspeakably  licentious  cult.  Other  Qakti  deities  are  more 
humane,  and  there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  the  ground  of  the 
devotion  shown  to  Kali,  especially  by  women,  is  in  many  cases 
simply  reverence  for  the  female  principle  in  life,  or  more  particu- 
larly for  motherhood.5 

735.  The  original  character  of  the  Hindu  lord  of  the  Other- 
world,  Yama,  is  obscured  by  the  variety  of  the  descriptions  of 

1  The  history  of  this  distinction  between  Dyaus  and  Varuna  is  lost  in  the  obscu- 
rity of  the  beginnings. 

2  This  conception  appears  in  germinal  form  in  Rig-Veda,  v,  84,  vi,  515,  but  is  not 
there  or  elsewhere  developed.  3  Macdonell,  Vedtc  Mythology,  §  20. 

4  Cf.  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  article  "  Bengal,"  p.  491  ff., 
and  the  references  there  given  to  authorities. 

5  One  form  of  Qaktism  is  described  (in  Hastings,  loc.  cit.)  as  being  the  general 
worship  of  the  Mothers  of  the  universe  represented  as  the  wives  of  the  gods. 


GODS  3  1 7 

him  in  the  documents.  In  the  Rig- Veda  he  appears  both  as  god 
and  (as  it  seems)  as  man.  He  is  the  son  of  the  solar  deity 
Vivashant  (Vivashat)  ;  he  is  named  in  enumerations  of  gods,  and 
Agni  is  his  friend  and  his  priest;  he  receives  worship,  and  is  he- 
sought  to  come  to  the  sacrifice.1  On  the  other  hand,  he  is  never 
called  "  god,"  but  only  "  king  "  ;  '2  he  is  spoken  of  as  the  "  only 
mortal,"  and  is  said  to  have  chosen  death  ;  he  is  associated  in 
heaven  with  the  "  fathers."  3  The  modern  interpretations  of  his 
origin  have  followed  these  two  sets  of  data.  By  some  writers  he 
has  been  identified  with  the  sun  (particularly  the  setting  sun),  and 
with  the  moon.4  But  these  identifications  are  set  aside  for  the 
Veda  by  the  fact  that  in  lists  of  gods  he  is  distinguished  from  sun 
and  moon.5  By  others  he  is  regarded  "as  the  mythical  first  man, 
the  first  ancestor,  with  residence  in  the  sky,  deified  as  original 
ancestors  sometimes  were,  and,  as  the  first  to  die  and  enter  the 
world  beyond,  made  the  king  of  that  world. 

Though  Yama  is  not  the  sun  in  the  Veda,  it  is  possible  that  he 
was  so  regarded  in  the  period  preceding  the  Vedic  theological 
construction,  and  in  support  of  this  view  it  may  be  said  that  the 
sun  setting,  descending  into  the  depths,  is  a  natural  symbol  of  the 
close  of  man's  life,6  and  rising,  represents  the  man's  life  in  the  be- 
yond —  thus  the  sun  would  be  identified  with  man,  and  not  un- 
naturally with  the  first  man,  the  first  to  die.  In  support  of  the 
other  view  may  be  cited  the  great  role  ascribed  by  many  peoples 
to  the  first  man :  in  savage  lore  he  is  often  the  creator  or  arranger 
of  the  world,7  and  he  is  sometimes,  like  Yama,  the  son  of  the  sun.8 

1  Rig-Veda,  x,  64,  92,  135,  21,  52,  14. 

2  Ibid.,  x,  14  ;  ix,  113.  However,  this  title  is  given  to  Varuna  also  (x,  14)  :  Yama 
and  Varuna  are  the  two  kings  whom  the  dead  man  sees  when  he  reaches  heaven. 

3  Ibid.,  x,  10,  13,  14  (cf.  Atharva-Veda,  xviii,  13). 

4  Hillebrandt,  Vedische  Mythologic,  i,  394  ft.,  but  only  for  the  Indo-Iranian  period. 
*  Rig-Veda,  x,  64. 

6  Cf.  Miiller,  Lectures  on  the  Science  of  Language,  second  series,  p.  534  f. ;  Tylor, 
Primitive  Culture,  ii,  314;  Bergaigne,  La  religion  vedique,  ii,  94,  note  3;  Frobenius, 
Childhood  of  A/an,  chap.  xxii.  Cf.  the  Egyptian  conception  of  ( )siris  ( Maspero,  Dawn 
of  Civilization,  p.  195). 

7  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  So  ;  other  examples  are  given  in  W.  Ellis's  Poly- 
nesian Researches,  i,  chap,  v,  and  Tylor,  op.  cit.,  ii,  312  ff. 

8  Ellis,  loc.  cit. ;  Dorsey,  The  Skidi  Pawnee^  p.  6. 


3i8     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Such  an  one,  entering  the  other  world,  might  become  its  lord,  and 
in  process  of  time  be  divinized  and  made  the  son  of  the  creator 
sun.1  The  Hindu  figure  is  often  compared  to  the  Avestan  first 
man,  Yima ;  but  Yima,  so  far  as  appears,  was  never  divinized, 
and  is  not  religiously  of  great  importance.  Nor  do  the  late  Jew- 
ish legends  and  theosophical  speculations  bear  on  the  point  un- 
der consideration  :  in  Paradise,  it  is  said,  Adam  was  waited  on  by 
angels,  the  angels  were  commanded  by  God  to  pay  him  homage 
(so  also  in  the  Koran),  and  he  is  described  as  being  the  light  of 
the  world  ;  and  Philo  and  others  conceived  of  a  first  or  heavenly 
man  (Adam  Kadmon),  free  from  ordinary  human  weakness,  and 
identical  with  the  Logos  or  the  Messiah  —  therefore  a  judge  in 
the  largest  sense  of  the  word.'2  But,  while  these  conceptions  testify 
to  the  strong  appeal  made  to  the  imagination  by  the  figure  of  the 
mythical  first  man,  they  throw  little  light  on  the  original  form  of 
Yama  —  the  early  constructions  do  not  include  the  judge  of  the 
other  world,  and  the  later  ones  are  too  late  to  explain  so  early  a 
figure  as  the  Vedic  king  of  that  world. 

736.  In  the  Rig- Veda  Yama  is  specifically  the  overlord  of  the 
blessed  dead  —  the  pious  who  were  thought  worthy  to  dwell  in 
heaven  with  the  gods  and  to  share  to  some  extent  their  divinity ; 
with  the  wicked  he  seems  to  have  nothing  to  do.  The  general  his- 
tory of  the  conception  of  the  future  life  suggests  that  in  the  earli- 
est Indo-Iranian  period  there  was  a  hades  to  which  all  the  dead 
went.3  If  there  was  a  divine  head  of  this  hades  (originally  an 
underground  deity,  like  Osiris,  Allatu,  and  Ploutos)  he  would 
accompany  the  pious  fathers  when,  in  the  later  Hindu  theologic 
construction,  they  were  transported  to  heaven ;  and  if  the  first 
ancestor  occupied  a  distinguished  place  among  the  dead,4  he 
might  be  fused  with  the  divine  head  into  a  sort  of  unity,  and  the 

1  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  12S  ff. ;  Macdonell,  Vedic  Mythology,  §  77; 
Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  Index,  s.v  .Yama;  and  see  the  references  in  these 
works  to  other  authors. 

*  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  articles  "  Adam  "  and  "  Adam  Kadmon  ': ;  Koran,  ii,  29  ff. ; 
cf.  1  Cor.  xv,  45  ff.  3  See  above,  §§  67  ff.,  82. 

4  On  the  relation  between  the  two  "  first  ancestors,"  Varna  and  Manu,  cf.  Bloom- 
field,  op.  cit.,  p.  140  f. 


GODS  319 

result  might  be  such  a  complex  figure  as  Yama  appears  to  be. 
However  this  may  be,  the  Yedic  Yama  underwent  a  development 
in  accordance  with  the  changes  in  the  religious  ideas  of  the  people, 
becoming  at  last  an  ethical  judge  of  the  dead.1 

737.  Persia.  The  Mazdean  theistic  system  presents  special  dif- 
ficulties.2 The  nature  of  its  divine  world  is  remarkable,  almost 
unique,  and  the  literature  that  has  come  down  to  us  was  edited  at 
a  comparatively  late  period,  probably  not  before  the  middle  of  the 
third  century  of  our  era,  so  that  it  is  not  always  easy  to  distinguish 
the  earlier  and  the  later  elements  of  thought.  It  is  generally  re- 
garded as  certain  that  the  two  branches  of  the  Aryan  race,  the 
Indian  and  the  Persian,  once  dwelt  together  and  formed  one  com- 
munity, having  the  same  general  religious  system  ;  the  material  of 
spirits  is  substantially  the  same  in  the  two  and  they  have  certain 
important  names  in  common  —  to  the  Indian  Asura,  Soma,  Mitra, 
the  Persian  Ahura,  Haoma,  Mithra  correspond  in  form  exactly. 
But  in  the  way  in  which  this  material  was  modified  and  organized 
the  two  communities  differ  widely. 

738.  The  peculiarity  of  the  Persian  system  is  that  it  practically 
disregards  all  the  old  gods  except  Mithra  and  Anahita,  substituting 
for  them  beings  designated  by  names  of  qualities,  and  organizes 
all  extrahuman  Powers  in  two  classes  —  one  under  the  Good  Spirit 
(Spenta  Mainyu),  the  other  under  the  Bad  Spirit  (Angro  Mainyu). 
The  former  is  attended  by  six  great  beings,  Immortal  Spirits 
( Amesha-spentas)  :  Good  Mind,  Best  Order  or  Law,  Holy  Har- 
mony or  Wisdom,  Piety,  Well-being,  Immortality.3  In  the  Gathas, 
which  are  commonly  held  to  be  the  most  ancient  Zoroastrian  docu- 
ments, these  attendants  of  the  supreme  god  are  often  nothing 
but  qualities,  but  on  the  other  hand  are  often  personified  and  wor- 
shiped. The  rival  of  the  Good  Spirit  is  surrounded  similarly  by 
lying  spirits  {drujas),  among  whom  one,  Aeshma,  holds  a  promi- 
nent place.    The  two  divine  chiefs  stand  side  by  side  in  the  earliest 

1  Hopkins,  Religions  of India ,  p.  379  ff. 

2  Ticle-Gehrich,  Geschichte  Jer  Religion  im  Altertum,  vol.  ii,  part  i. 

3  See  above,  §  703.  Cf.  articles  by  L.  II.  Mills  in  Journal  of the  .  Xmerican  Oriental 
Society,  vols,  xx  and  xxi ;  L.  II.  Gray,  in  Archiv  fiir  Religionswissenschaft^  vii  (1904), 
P-  345- 


320     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

literature  almost  as  coequal  powers ;   but  it  is  explained  that  the 
wicked  one  is  to  be  destroyed  with  all  his  followers. 

739.  In  some  of  the  early  hymns  (Yacnas)  Mithra  is  closely 
attached  to  Ahura  Mazda  —  the  two  are  called  "  the  lofty  and 
imperishable  ones."  The  goddess  Anahita,  first  mentioned  in  an 
inscription  of  Artaxerxes  II,  and  described  only  in  the  late  Fifth 
Yasht,  appears  to  have  been  originally  a  deity  of  water.  It  was, 
doubtless,  her  popularity  that  led  to  her  official  recognition  by 
Artaxerxes ;  possibly  her  formal  recognition  by  the  Mazdean  lead- 
ers was  a  slow  process,  since  she  does  not  appear  in  the  older 
Avesta.  In  the  Yasht  she  receives  worship  (being  in  the  form  of 
a  beautiful  young  woman)  as  the  dispenser  of  all  blessings  that 
come  from  pure  water ;  she  is  said  to  have  been  created  by  Ahura 
Mazda,  and  is  wholly  subordinated  to  him.  Besides  these  two  a 
great  number  of  lesser  gods  are  mentioned ;  the  latter,  apparently 
the  old  local  gods  and  spirits  here  subordinated  to  the  supreme 
god,  are  unimportant  in  the  official  cult.  The  souls  of  the  departed 
also  become  objects  of  worship. 

740.  It  thus  appears  that  Zoroastrianism  was  a  reform  of  the 
old  polytheism.  The  .movement  closely  resembles  the  struggle  of 
the  Hebrew  prophets  against  the  worship  of  the  Canaanite  Baals 
and  other  foreign  gods.  In  both  cases  there  is  evidence  going  to 
show  that  popular  cults  continued  after  the  leaders  of  the  reform 
had  thrown  off  the  offensive  elements  of  the  old  system :  the 
Hebrew  people  continued  to  worship  foreign  gods  long  after  the 
great  prophets  had  pronounced  against  them ;  and  the  official 
recognition  of  Ahura  Mazda  in  the  Achaemenian  inscriptions  *  by 
no  means  proves  that  lower  forms  of  worship  were  not  practiced 
in  Persia  by  the  people.2 

741.  If  we  ask  for  the  grounds  of  this  recoil  from  the  old  gods, 
we  must  doubtless  hold  that  ethical  feeling  was  a  powerful  motive 
in  the  reform,  though  economic  and  other  considerations  were, 
doubtless,  not  without  influence. 

1  Records  of  the  Past,  vols,  v,  ix. 

2  Many  lesser  divine  beings  are  mentioned  by  Spiegel  (in  Eranlsche  Altertlmms- 
kundc,  ii,  66  ff .)  ;  the  advance  to  a  real  monotheistic  cult  was  not  achieved  in  Persia 
without  many  generations  of  struggle. 


GODS  321 

Since  Ahura  Mazda  is  ethically  good  and  his  worship  ethically 
pure,  there  is  clearly  in  its  origin  hostility  to  low  modes  of  wor- 
ship and  to  materialistic  ideas.  Possibly  also  we  have  here  a  struggle 
of  a  clan  for  the  recognition  of  its  own  god,  as  among  the  Israel- 
ites the  Yahweh  party  represented  exclusive  devotion  to  the  old 
national  god.  If  there  was  such  a  clan  or  party  in  Persia,  it  is 
obvious  that  it  produced  men  of  high  intelligence  and  great  moral 
and  organizing  power,  and  all  that  we  know  of  the  religious  history 
leads  us  to  suppose  that  the  establishment  of  the  supremacy  of 
Ahura  Mazda  was  the  result  of  a  long  development. 

742.  As  to  the  provenance  of  the  Mazdean  supreme  lord,  not  a 
few  scholars  of  the  present  day  hold  that  he  was  identical  with  the 
Indian  Varuna.  It  is  in  favor  of  this  identification  that  the  quali- 
ties of  the  two  deities  are  the  same,  and  there  is  also  the  note- 
worthy fact  that  Ahura  Mazda  is  coupled  with  Mithra  as  Varuna 
is  coupled  with  Mitra ;  according  to  this  view  the  Mazdean  deity 
was  originally  the  god  of  the  sky,  by  whose  side  naturally  stands 
the  sun.  In  a  case  like  this,  involving  a  general  agreement  between 
two  systems  of  thought,  there  are  two  possible  explanations  of  the 
relation  between  them  :  it  may  be  supposed  that  one  borrowed 
from  the  other  (in  the  present  case  the  borrowing  would  be  on 
the  part  of  the  Persians)  ;  or  the  explanation  may  be  that  the  two 
communities  developed  original  material  along  the  same  general 
lines,  though  with  local  differences.  In  the  absence  of  historical 
data  it  is  perhaps  impossible  to  say  which  of  these  explanations  is 
to  be  preferred.  There  is,  however,  no  little  difficulty  in  the  sup- 
position that  one  community  has  actually  borrowed  its  religious 
system  from  a  neighbor ;  the  general  probability  is  that  each  fol- 
lowed its  own  line. 

743.  Nor  is  it  probable  that  the  rejection  of  the  old  divine  names 
by  the  Persians  was  the  result  of  hostility  toward  their  Indian 
neighbors.  It  is  doubtless  a  curious  fact  that  the  Indian  name  for 
'evil  spirit,'  asura,  is  in  Persian  the  name  of  a  good  spirit,  Ahura, 
while  the  Indian  diva,  the  general  term  for  a  god,  is  in  Persian 
the  designation  of  a  wicked  spirit,  daeva.  The  Persian  employment 
of  daeva  for  '  evil  spirit '  may  be  explained  as  a  protest  not  against 


Indian  gods,  but  against  the  deities  of  their  own  land ;  so  the 
Hebrew  prophets  or  their  editors  apply  opprobrious  names,  "  no- 
god  "  and  other  terms,  to  deities  regarded  by  them  as  inadequate. 
The  abstractions  of  the  Mazdean  system  have  been  referred  to 
above.  They  seem  to  have  been  resorted  to  from  a  feeling  of  pro- 
found disgust  at  the  worship  of  some  class  of  people.  Unfortunately 
we  have  not  the  historical  data  that  might  make  the  situation  clear. 
In  the  Gathas  the  people  of  Ahura  Mazda  are  suffering  from  the 
incursions  of  predatory  tribes,  and  the  greater  part  of  the  appeals 
to  the  deity  are  for  protection  for  the  herds  against  their  enemies. 
We  thus  have  a  suggestion  of  a  struggle,  political  and  religious, 
between  the  more  civilized  Aryans  and  the  savage  Tataric  tribes 
around  them. 

744.  In  the  later  period  of  Mazdeanism  the  old  titles  of  supreme 
deity  were  succeeded  (though  not  displaced)  by  the  terms  "  Bound- 
less Time"  and  "  Boundless  Space,"  the  latter  doubtless  suggested 
by  the  vault  of  heaven.  These  generalizations,  however,  had  little 
influence  on  the  development  of  the  theological  side  of  the  religion, 
which  has  continued  to  regard  Ahura  Mazda  and  Angro  Mainyu 
as  the  two  heads  of  the  world  and  the  determiners  of  human  life. 
The  rituals  of  the  Mazdean  and  Hindu  faiths  were  influenced  by  the 
ethical  developments  of  the  two,  becoming  simpler  and  more  humane 
with  the  advance  toward  elevated  conceptions  of  God  and  man. 

745.  In  view  of  such  facts  as  are  known  it  may  be  surmised  that 
the  Mazdean  system  originated  with  an  Aryan  agricultural  tribe  or 
body  of  tribes  dwelling  near  the  Caspian  Sea,  in  contact  with  hostile 
nomads.  These  Aryans,  we  may  assume,  had  the  ordinary  early 
apparatus  of  spirits  and  nature  deities  (gods  of  the  sun,  water, 
etc.),  but,  at  the  same  time,  a  disposition  to  concentrate  worship 
on  a  single  god  (probably  a  sky-god),  who  became  the  chief  tribal 
deity  and  was  naturally  regarded  as  the  source  of  all  things  good, 
the  Good  Spirit ;  the  phenomena  of  life  led  them  (as  it  led  some 
other  early  peoples)  to  conceive  of  a  rival  spirit,  the  author  of  things 
hostile  to  life.  With  economic  conditions  and  intellectual  character- 
istics very  different  from  those  of  their  Hindu  brethren,  they  de- 
veloped no  capacity  for  organizing  an  elaborate  pantheon  —  they 


GODS  323 

were  practically  monolatrous,  were  content  with  an  all-sufficient 
Good  Spirit  (the  Bad  Spirit  being  tolerated  as  an  intellectual  neces- 
sity), gradually  subordinated  to  him  such  gods  as  the  popular  feel- 
ing retained,  and  relegated  to  the  sphere  of  evil  the  host  of  inferior 
hurtful  spirits  or  gods  (daevas)  whose  existence  they  could  not 
deny.1  The  religious  leaders,  representing  and  enforcing  the  tribal 
tendency  of  thought,  in  the  course  of  time  gave  more  and  more 
definite  shape  to  the  cult ;  perhaps  Zoroaster  was  a  preeminent 
agent  in  this  movement.  Ethical  purification,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
went  hand  in  hand  with  cultie  organization.  The  old  gods  or  spirits, 
associates  of  the  supreme  god,  became  embodiments  of  moral  con- 
ceptions, and  a  ritual  of  physical  and  moral  purity  was  worked  out. 
Such  may  have  been  the  general  history  of  the  official  system  ;  data 
for  a  detailed  chronological  history  are  lacking.2 

746.  China.  Chinese  religion  is  characterized  by  a  remarkable 
restraint  in  ecclesiastical  development :  simple  religious  customs,  no 
native  priestly  order,  few  gods,  almost  no  myths.  The  basis  of  the 
popular  religion  is  the  usual  material,  comprising  ancestors,  spirits 
(including  tutelary  spirits),  a  few  departmental  gods  (of  war,  of  the 
kitchen,  etc.),  some  of  which  are  said  to  be  deified  men.  The 
system  is  thus  nearly  the  same  as  that  of  the  central  Asiatic 
Mongolians.3 

747.  The  reflective  movement  (which  must  have  begun  long 
before  the  sixth  century  B.C.,  the  period  of  Confucius  and  Lao-tsze) 
is  marked  by  the  attempt  to  perfect  the  social  organization,  regard 
being  paid  mainly  to  visible,  practical  relations.  Stress  is  laid  on  the 
principle  of  order  in  family  and  state,  which  is  held  to  reflect  the 
order  of  the  universe  ;4  speculation  is  avoided,  there  is  a  minimum 
of  religion.  In  the  more  developed  religious  system  the  two  promi- 
nent features  are,  first,  the  dominant  conception  of  the  unity  of 

1  Cf.  the  similar  process  in  the  Arabian  treatment  of  the  jinn  (XV.  R.  Smith, 
Religion  of  the  Semites,  new  ed.,  p.  122  f.). 

2  Cf.  A.  V-  Williams  Jackson,  Zoroaster,  and  his  sketch  in  Geiger  and  Kuhn's 
Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie ;  D.  Menant,  Zoroaster  cPapris  la  tradition  par- 
sic,  in  Annates  dn  Musee  Guimet,  vol  xxx. 

3  De  Groot,  Religion  of  the  Chinese,  chaps,  i  and  iii ;  pp.  62  ff.,  1 12  f.,  129  f. 

4  With  this  conception  we  may  compare  the  similar  principles  in  the  Yedic  and 
Mazdean  systems. 


324 


IXTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


the  family  and  of  the  state  led  to  the  emphasizing  of  the  worship  of 
ancestors  —  a  cult  which,  going  back  to  a  very  early  time,  has  been 
interwoven  in  China  with  the  individual  and  communal  life  in  a 
thoroughgoing  way,  with  a  constant  infusion  of  moral  ideas ;  and 
in  the  next  place,  the  order  of  society  and  of  the  external  world  is 
represented  by  Heaven.1 

748.  Originally,  doubtless,  Heaven  was  the  physical  sky  (as 
among  the  Hindus  and  Persians  and  many  other  peoples),  but  at 
an  early  period  came  to  be  practically  the  supreme  god.  A  sort  of 
monotheistic  cult  has  thus  been  established  as  the  official  religion. 
The  emperor  is  the  Son  of  Heaven  and  the  High  Priest  of  the 
nation,  and  in  the  great  annual  sacrifices  performed  by  him  the 
host  of  minor  powers  is  practically  ignored  and  worship  is  addressed 
to  the  controlling  powers  of  the  world.  This  official  worship  does 
not  set  aside  the  cult  of  the  various  spirits,  whose  existence  is  rec- 
ognized by  the  minor  officials  as  well  as  by  the  people.  The  cult 
of  local  spirits  has  grown  to  extraordinary  dimensions.  They  fill 
the  land,  controlling  the  conditions  of  life  and  demanding  constant 
regard ;  and  the  experts,  who  are  supposed  to  know  the  laws  gov- 
erning the  action  of  the  spirits  (for  example,  as  to  proper  burial- 
places),  wield  enormous  power,  and  make  enormous  charges  of 
money.  These  spirits  are  treated  as  of  subordinate  importance 
in  the  official  religion.  The  process  by  which  China  has  reached 
this  religious  attitude  must  have  extended  over  millenniums,  and, 
as  is  stated  above,  the  intellectual  movement  in  the  direction  of 
simplicity  and  clearness  has  been  attended  by  an  advance  in 
ethical  purity. 

749.  The  tendency  of  Chinese  thought  is  illustrated  by  the  two 
systems  of  philosophy  which  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.  formulated 
the  conception  of  a  universal  dominant  order : 2  Confucius  repre- 
sents the  extreme  logical  development  of  natural  order  in  human  life 
as  a  product  of  cosmic  order  —  he  is  content  absolutely  to  deal  with 

1  The  all-controlling  order,  as  is  remarked  above,  is  that  of  the  universe,  which 
furnishes  the  norm  for  human  life  ;  but  in  the  universe  the  grandest  object  is  heaven. 

2  Legge,  in  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  xxxix,  xl ;  De  Groot,  Religious  System  of 
China,  and  his  smaller  works,  Religion  of  the  Chinese  and  Development  of  Religion 
in  China. 


GODS  325 

the  practical  affairs  of  life  and  discourages  attempts  to  inquire  into 
the  nature  of  gods  or  into  the  condition  of  men  after  death.  Lao- 
tsze,  on  the  other  hand,  similarly  taking  the  Way  (tao\  or  Universal 
Order,  as  the  informing  and  controlling  power  of  the  world,  appears 
to  have  laid  the  stress  on  the  relation  between  it  and  the  human 
soul  —  a  conception  that  has  affinities  with  the  Stoic  Logos.  But 
it  is  Confucianism  that  has  remained  the  creed  of  educated  China. 
Taoism,  beginning,  apparently,  as  a  spiritual  system,  did  not  ap- 
peal to  the  Chinese  feeling,  and  speedily  degenerated  into  a  system 
of  magical  jugglery.  Thus  the  Chinese,  with  the  feeblest  religious 
sense  to  be  found  in  any  great  nation,  have  nevertheless  reached 
the  grandiose  conception  of  the  all-embracing  and  all-controlling 
supreme  Heaven.  In  their  case  the  governing  consideration  has 
been  the  moral  organization  of  social  life,  and  Nature  has  swal- 
lowed up  all  great  partial  deities. 

750.  Japan.  Japan  has  produced  no  great  god  ; x  out  of  the  mass 
of  nature  gods  reported  in  the  Kojiki  not  one  becomes  preeminent. 
There  is  recognition  of  Heaven  and  Earth  as  the  beginning  of 
things,  and  of  the  sun  as  a  deity,  but  neither  the  sky-god  nor  the 
sun-goddess  becomes  a  truly  high  god.  Japanese  theistic  devel- 
opment appears  to  have  been  crippled  at  an  early  period  by  the 
intrusion  of  Chinese  influences ;  the  very  name  of  the  national 
religion,  Shinto,  '  the  Way  of  the  Gods,'  is  Chinese.  The  emperor 
was  deified,  and  ancestor-worship  became  the  principal  popular 
cult ; 2  but  Confucianism  and  Buddhism  overlaid  the  native  worship 
at  an  early  period.  The  later  forms  of  Shinto  have  moved  rather 
toward  the  rejection  of  the  old  deities  than  toward  the  creation  of 
a  great  national  god. 

751.  Semitic  peoples.  Among  the  various' Semitic  peoples  there 
is  so  marked  a  unity  of  thought  that,  as  Robertson  Smith  has 
pointed  out,3  we  may  speak  of  the  Semitic  religion,  though  there  are 

1  W.  E.  Griffis,  Religions  of  Japan;  E.  Buckley,  in  Saussaye,  Lehrbuch  der  Reli- 
gionsgeschiehte,  2d  ed. ;  Aston,  Shinto ;  Knox,  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan ; 
Longford,  The  Story  of  Old  Japan,  chap.  ii. 

-  Whether  the  worship  of  ancestors,  now  so  important  an  element  of  the  national 
life,  is  native  or  borrowed  is  uncertain. 

3  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  new  ed.,  p.  13  ff. 


326     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

noteworthy  local  differences.  Generally  we  find  among  these  com- 
munities, as  elsewhere,  a  large  number  of  local  deities,  scarcely 
distinguishable  in  their  functions  one  from  another.1  A  noteworthy 
illustration  of  the  long  continuance  of  these  local  cults  is  given  in 
the  attempt  of  the  last  king  of  Babylon,  Nabonidus,  to  centralize 
the  worship  by  bringing  the  statues  of  the  local  deities  to  Bab- 
ylon ;  the  result  was  a  general  popular  protest.  Similarly  an  attempt 
was  made  by  King  Josiah  in  the  seventh  century  B.C.  to  centralize 
all  Israelite  worship  in  Jerusalem,  but  the  history  of  the  succeeding 
generations  shows  that  the  attempt  was  not  successful.  The  local 
gods  represent  the  clannic  and  tribal  organization,  to  which  the 
Semites  appear  to  have  clung  with  peculiar  fondness. 

752.  Semitic  religion  shows  an  orderly  advance  through  the 
medium  of  tribal  and  national  feeling  in  conjunction  with  the 
regular  moral  and  intellectual  growth  of  the  community.  First  one 
god  and  then  another  comes  to  the  front  as  this  or  that  city  attains 
leadership,  but  these  chief  gods  are  substantially  identical  with  one 
another  in  functions.  The  genealogical  relations  introduced  by  the 
priestly  theologians  throw  no  light  on  the  original  characters  of  the 
deities  and  are  often  ignored  in  the  inscriptions.  A  natural  division 
into  gods  of  the  sky  and  gods  of  the  earth  may  be  recognized,  but 
in  the  high  gods  this  distinction  practically  disappears. 

753.  Turning  first  to  the  Tigris-Euphrates  region,  we  find  certain 
nature  gods  that  attained  more  or  less  definite  universal  character.2 
The  physical  sky  becomes  the  god  Ami,  who,  though  certainly 
a  great  god,  was  never  so  prominent  as  certain  other  deities,  and 
in  Assyria  yielded  gradually  to  Ashur.  Why  the  Semites,  in  marked 
contrast  with  the  Indo-Europeans  and  the  Chinese,  have  shown  a 
relatively  feeble  recognition  of  the  physical  heaven  we  are  not  able 
to  say  ;  possibly  the  tribal  feeling  referred  to  above  may  have  led 

1  Compare  Baethgen,  Beit  rage  zur  semitischen  Rcligionsgcschichte,  p.  262  f. 

2  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  ;  id.,  Aspects  of  Religions  Belief  and 
Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria ;  Jeremias,  in  Saussaye,  Lchrbuch  dcr  Religions- 
geschichte;  Zimmern,  article  "  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia 
of  Religion  and  Ethics;  Ed.  Meyer,  Geschichte  des  Alt  alums,  i,  part  ii,  2d  book.  In 
our  survey  of  Babylonian  deities  the  question  of  Sumerian  influence  may  be  left 
out  of  the  account. 


GODS 


W 


to  a  centering  of  devotion  on  those  deities  that  lay  nearer  to  every- 
day life,  or  in  the  case  of  Babylonia  it  may  be  that  the  city  with 
which  Anu  was  particularly  connected  lost  its  early  importance,  and 
its  deity  in  consequence  yielded  to  others.1  The  sun  is  a  more  defi- 
nite and  more  practically  important  object  than  the  expanse  of  the 
sky,  and  the  Semitic  sun-god,  Shamash,  plays  a  great  role  from  the 
earliest  to  the  latest  times.  The  great  king  Hammurabi  (commonly 
placed  near  the  year  2000  B.C.),  in  his  noteworthy  civil  code,  takes 
Shamash  as  his  patron,  as  the  inspirer  of  wisdom  and  the  con- 
troller of  human  right ;  and  from  this  time  onward  this  deity  is 
invoked  by  the  kings  in  their  inscriptions.  The  worship  of  the 
sun  was  established  in  Canaan  at  an  early  time  (as  the  name  of 
the  town  Bethshemesh,  *  house  of  Shemesh,'  shows),  and  under 
Assyrian  influence  was  adopted  by  a  large  number  of  Israelites  in 
the  seventh  century  B.C. ;  the  prophet  Ezekiel  represents  prominent 
Israelites  as  standing  in  the  court  of  the  temple,  turning  their  backs 
on  the  sacred  house  and  worshiping  the  sun  ; 2  but  as  to  the  nature 
of  the  sun-god  and  his  worship  in  these  cases  we  have  no  informa- 
tion. Other  nature  deities  that  rose  to  eminence  are  the  moon-god, 
Sin,  and  the  storm-god,  Ramman. 

754.  The  other  deities  of  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  pan- 
theons seem  not  to  be  connected  by  their  names  with  natural 
phenomena.  They  are  attached  to  particular  cities  or  districts, 
and  each  district  or.  city,  as  it  becomes  a  great  religious  center, 
raises  its  favorite  god  to  a  position  of  preeminence.  Generally 
the  choice  of  a  special  deity  by  a  particular  city  lies  back  of  histori- 
cal documents,  and  the  reason  for  such  choice  therefore  cannot  be 
definitely  fixed.  The  attributes  and  functions  of  the  resulting  great 
gods,  as  has  already  been  remarked,  are  substantially  everywhere 
the  same,  and  where  one  function  becomes  prominent,  it  is  often  pos- 
sible to  explain  its  prominence  from  the  political  or  other  conditions. 

755.  Moreover,  as  in  all  theological  constructions  that  follow 
great  political  unifications,  it  was  natural   to  extend  the  domain 

1  Compare  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  .  \ssyria,  p.  481  ;  id.,  Aspects  of 
Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and As syria ,  pp.  23,  45,  121. 

2  Ezek.  viii,  16. 


328     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

of  a  principal  god  to  whatever  department  of  life  or  of  nature 
appealed  especially  to  the  theologian.  When  we  find  certain  gods 
invested  with  solar  functions  it  does  not  follow  that  they  were 
originally  sun-gods  —  such  functions  may  be  a  necessary  result 
of  their  preeminence.  Out  of  the  great  mass  of  Babylonian  and 
Assyrian  deities  we  may  select  a  few  whose  cults  illustrate  the 
method  of  development  of  the  religious  conceptions.  As  non- 
Semitic  (Sumerian)  religious  and  other  ideas  and  words  appear  to 
have  been  adopted  by  the  Semitic  Babylonians,  it  is  not  always 
easv  to  distinguish  between  Semitic  and  non-Semitic  conceptions 
in  the  cults  as  known  to  us. 

756.  Babylonia.  The  god  Ea  appears  to  have  been  originally 
the  local  deity  of  Eridu,  a  city  which  in  early  times  stood  on  the 
Persian  Gulf.  This  proximity  to  the  sea  may  account  for  the  fact 
that  Ea  was  generally  associated  with  water  (in  Babylonia,  as  else- 
where, there  were  many  deities  of  waters").  It  is  not  certain  that 
this  was  his  original  role,  but  it  was,  in  any  case,  assigned  him  in 
the  course  of  the  theistic  construction.  It  is  not  improbable  that 
in  the  original  form  of  the  Babylonian  epic  it  was  Ea  who  sent 
the  flood  and  saved  one  man  —  a  natural  representation  for  the 
god  of  Eridu  ;  in  later  recensions  of  the  poem  it  is  first  Bel  and 
then  Marduk  who  assumes  the  principal  role.  As  Eridu  was 
probably  a  prominent  political  center,  Ea,  as  its  chief  god,  natu- 
rally became  the  creator,  the  bestower  of  wisdom,  the  author  of 
the  arts  of  life,  in  general  a  universal  god.  As  the  political  center 
shifted,  the  popular  interest  changed  and  Ea  yielded  more  or  less 
to  other  gods,  continuing,  however,  throughout  the  whole  Baby- 
lonian and  Assyrian  period  to  receive  high  consideration. 

757.  Enlil,  the  god  of  Nippur,  had  a  similar  career;  originally 
local,  he  became  supreme.  A  peculiar  feature  of  his  history  is  the 
fact  that  the  title  Bel,  '  lord '  (which  is  the  Semitic  equivalent  of 
the  non-Semitic  Enlil),  clung  to  him  in  a  peculiar  way  and  practi- 
cally ousted  the  original  name.  This  title  was  assigned  to  various 
gods  (so  in  Canaan  the  title  Baal),  and  its  special  appropriation  by 
the  god  of  Nippur  must  be  referred  to  the  preponderant  impor- 
tance of  that  city  in  the  period  before  the  rise  of  Babylon.    In  the 


GODS  329 

Babylonian  system  he  is  lord  of  the  lower  world,  that  is,  appar- 
ently, the  divine  king  of  the  earth ;  his  original  domain,  the  dis- 
trict of  Nippur,  was  extended  to  embrace  the  whole  world  —  a 
sort  of  extension  that  was  common  in  all  ancient  religions.  His 
importance  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  he  was  a  member  of  the 
early  triad,  Anu,  Bel,  Ea,  names  that  have  been  supposed  to  rep- 
resent three  divisions  of  the  world  into  heaven,  earth,  and  ocean. 
It  seems  probable,  however,  that  this  triadic  grouping  was  the 
work  of  relatively  late  constructionists ;  it  is  more  likely  that  the 
original  prominence  of  these  three  deities  was  due  to  the  fact  that 
they  represented  the  more  important  political  communities.1 

758.  A  particularly  good  illustration  of  the  dependence  of  a 
god's  position  on  the  political  position  of  his  region  is  furnished 
by  the  god  Marduk,  a  name  the  meaning  of  which  is  uncertain. 
He  is  first  clearly  mentioned  in  the  inscriptions  of  Hammurabi 
(ca.  2000  B.C.),  but  mentioned  in  such  a  way  that  his  cult  must 
go  back  to  a  much  earlier  time.  From  the  devotion  paid  him  by 
Hammurabi,  and  much  later  by  Nebuchadrezzar  II  (sixth  century 
B.C.),  it  is  generally  assumed  that  he  was  the  local  god  of  Babylon. 
He  rose  with  the  fortunes  of  this  city,  finally  becoming  supreme : 
he  was  regarded  as  creator,  and  invested  with  all  the  highest  func- 
tions ;  in  the  later  astronomical  constructions  he  is  represented  as 
the  arranger  of  the  zodiacal  system  and  all  that  was  connected 
with  it,  but,  as  is  pointed  out  above,  this  is  no  ground  for  regard- 
ing him  as  having  been  originally  a  sun-god.  A  glimpse  into  the 
method  of  theological  reconstruction  is  afforded  by  the  representa- 
tion in  the  cosmogonic  epic  where  he  is  invested  with  supreme 
power  by  the  older  gods  —  this  investiture  is  with  probability 
regarded  by  Assyriologists  as  representing  the  leadership  attained 
by  the  city  of  Babylon  (ca.  2000  B.C.),  whose  religious  hegemony 
lasted  throughout  the  existence  of  the  Babylonian  state. 

1  Jastrovv,  Aspects  of  Religions  Belief  ami  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  S2. 
The  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  triads  were  loosely  constructed,  and  had,  apparently, 
no  significance  for  the  local  and  royal  cults.  In  this  regard  they  differed  from  the 
Egyptian  triads  and  enneads,  which  were  highly  elaborated  and  organi7.ed  (Maspero, 
Dawn  of  Civilization,  p.  104  ff.  ;  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  56.;  Steindorff, 
Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  29). 


330     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

759.  Assyria.  The  Assyrian  pantheon  is  in  general  identical 
with  that  of  Babylon,  but  has  certain  features  which  are  due  to 
the  peculiar  character  of  the  Assyrian  civilization.  The  god  Ashur, 
originally  the  local  god  of  the  city  or  district  of  Ashur,  and  then 
the  chief  god  of  Assyria,  was  naturally  a  war-god  —  Assyria  was 
essentially  a  military  nation,  differing  in  this  regard  from  Babylonia. 
He  is,  however,  more  than  a  mere  god  of  war  —  he  has  all  high 
attributes,  and  came  to  represent  in  Assyria  that  approach  to 
monotheism  which  in  Babylon  was  embodied  in  the  later  cult 
of  Marduk. 

760.  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  female  deities  are  of  two  classes : 
those  who  are  merely  consorts  of  the  male  deities,  and  those  who 
represent  fertility.  The  first  class  we  may  pass  over  —  the  god- 
desses of  this  class  are  vague  in  character  and  functions  and  play 
no  important  part  in  the  religious  system ;  they  appear  to  be  arti- 
ficial creations  of  the  systematizers.  The  deities  of  the  second 
class,  however,  are  important.  From  a  very  early  time  the  fer- 
tility of  nature  has  been  referred  appropriately  to  female  Powers, 
and  in  the  Semitic  pantheon  a  large  number  of  such  divinities 
occur.  A  deity  of  this  sort  naturally  becomes  a  mother-goddess, 
with  all  the  attributes  that  pertain  to  this  character ;  in  some  cases 
a  mother-goddess  becomes  supreme. 

761.  A  very  early  female  divinity  is  Bau,  worshiped  particu- 
larly at  the  city  Lagash  and  by  King  Gudea.  Her  function  as 
patron  of  productiveness  is  probably  indicated  in  the  spring  fes- 
tival held  in  her  honor  on  New  Year's  Day,  in  which  she  is  wor- 
shiped as  the  giver  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth.  There  are  several 
local  female  deities  that  seem  to  be  substantially  identical  in  char- 
acter with  Bau.  Innanna  (or  Ninni)  in  Uruk  (Erech)  was  the 
mistress  of  the  world  and  of  war,  and  Nana  is  hardly  to  be  dis- 
tinguished from  her.1  In  Agade  Anunit  has  a  similar  role ;  in 
Lagash  Nina  was  the  determiner  of  fate,  and  the  mother  of  the 
goddesses. 

762.  These  names  appear  to  be  titles  signifying  '  mistress,' 
'  lady,'  and  this  is  probably  the  meaning  of  the  name  of  the  great 

1  Cf.  article  "  Astarte  "  (by  Ed.  Meyer)  in  Roscher,  Lexikon. 


GODS  33I 

goddess  who  finally  ousted  or  absorbed  her  sisters,  Ishtar.1  In  the 
earliest  form  in  which  Ishtar  appears,  in  the  old  poetry,  she  is  the 
deity  of  fertility;  when  she  goes  down  to  the  Underworld  all  pro- 
ductiveness of  plants  and  men  ceases ;  and  her  primitive  character 
at  this  time  appears  in  the  account  of  her  marriages  with  animals, 
in  which  there  is  to  be  recognized  the  trace  of  the  old  zoolatrous 
period ;  but  as  patron  of  fertility  she  becomes  in  time  a  great  god- 
dess and  takes  on  universal  attributes  —  she  is  the  mother  of  gods 
and  men,  universal  protector  and  guide.  Where  war  was  the  chief 
pursuit  she  became  a  goddess  of  war  ;  in  this  character  she  appears 
in  Babylonia  as  early  as  the  time  of  Hammurabi,  and  later  in 
Assyria.  In  the  genealogical  constructions  she  was  brought  into 
connection,  as  daughter,  wife,  or  other  relation,  with  any  god  that 
the  particular  conditions  suggested.  As  the  Assyrians  grew  mor- 
ally she  was  endowed  with  all  the  highest  virtues  (so  in  the  Peniten- 
tial Psalms),  and  occupied  so  preeminent  a  position  that  under 
favorable  circumstances  she  might  perhaps  have  become  the  only 
god  of  the  land. 

763.  If  her  name  signified  originally  'lord'  or  'lady,'  the  oc- 
currence of  several  Ishtars  in  Assyria  (particularly  Ishtar  of  Nine- 
veh and  Ishtar  of  Arbela)  is  easily  understood  ;  so  in  Canaan,  as 
we  learn  from  the  Old  Testament,  there  was  a  great  number  of 
local  Ashtarts.2  We  can  thus  also  explain  the  male  deities  Ashtar 
in  Moab  and  Athtar  in  South  Arabia.3  None  of  these,  however, 
attained  the  eminence  of  the  P>abylonian  and  Assyrian  Ishtar ;  her 

1  For  the  cuneiform  material  see  Delitzsch,  A ssyrisches H andworterbuc/i,  and,  for 
various  etymologies  proposed  for  the  name,  Barton,  Semitic  Origins,  p.  102  ff. ;  I  laupt, 
in  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  xxviii,  1 12  ff. ;  Barton,  ibid.,  xxxi,  355  ff. 
The  frequent  expression  Hani  u  ishtarati,  f  gods  and  goddesses,'  suggests  that  the 
original  sense  of  ishtar  is  simply '  a  deity ' ;  it  is  not  probable  that  a  proper  name 
would  become  a  common  noun  and  have  a  plural ;  cf.  the  treatment  of  the  title 
Hit,* a.  god.' 

2  As  the  title  bcl,  'lord,'  became  the  proper  name  of  a  particular  god,  so  the  title 
ishtar,  '  mistress,'  '  lady,'  might  become  the  proper  name  of  a  particular  goddess  ;  in 
neither  case  is  the  detailed  history  of  the  process  known  to  us. 

3  They  were  probably  local  "  lords  "  :  in  Moab  Ashtar  was  combined  with  a  deity 
called  Kemosh,  of  whom  nothing  is  known  except  that  he  was  a  Moabite  national 
god  (cf.  G.  F.  Moore,  article  "  Chemosh  "  in  Encyclopedia  Biblicd).  For  a  different 
view  of  Ashtar  and  Athtar  see  Barton,  Semitic  Origins,  Index,  s.vv.  Chemosh,  Athtar  ; 
he  regards  these  deities  as  transformations  of  the  mother-goddess  Ashtart. 


332     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

supremacy  in  Mesopotamia  was  due  doubtless  in  part  to  the  politi- 
cal importance  of  the  cities  that  adopted  her.  She  had  her  rivals, 
as  we  have  seen,  in  Marduk  and  Ashur  and  others ;  and  that  she 
was  able  to  maintain  herself  is  to  be  ascribed  in  some  measure  to 
the  importance  attached  by  her  worshipers  to  the  fertilizing  power 
of  nature. 

764.  The  other  Semitic  peoples,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Hebrews,  offer  little  material  for  tracing  the  development  of  the 
great  gods.  For  the  Aramean  region  the  records  are  sparse  ;  Ara- 
mcan  deities  appear  to  be  of  the  same  character  as  the  Canaanite.1 
In  Canaan  (including  Phoenicia)  out  of  the  vast  number  of  local 
divinities,  the  Baals  and  Ashtarts,  few  attained  to  eminence,  and  it 
is  doubtful  whether  any  one  of  them  deserves  the  title  "  great."  2 
The  divine  patrons  of  cities  were  locally  powerful ;  such  were  the 
Baal  of  Tyre,  called  Melkart  (*  the  king  of  the  city '),  the  Ashtart 
of  Sidon,  and  Tanit  of  Carthage ; 2  these  owed  their  reputation 
to  their  official  positions,  and  there  is  no  other  record  of  their  de- 
velopment. The  same  thing  is  true  of  the  Moabite  Kemosh,  the 
Ammonite  Malkom  (Milkom),  and  the  Philistine  Dagan  (Dagon) 
and  Baalzebub.  None  of  these  became  ethically  great  or  approached 
universality.  The  Phoenician  Eshmun  was  known  to  the  Greeks, 
and  was  identified  by  them  with  their  Asklepios  (^Esculapius), 
probably  because  among  the  various  functions  attaching  to  him 
as  local  deity  healing  was  prominent ;  but  of  his  theologic  history 
little  is  known.3  Several  North  Arabian  deities,  especially  Dusares 
(Dhu  ash-Shara)  and  the  goddesses  Al-Lat  and  Al-Uzza,  were 
widely  worshiped,  their  cults  extending  over  the  whole  Nabatean 
region ;  but  the  communities  -to  which  they  belonged  never 
produced  a  great  civilization  or  attained  great  political  signifi- 
cance,  and    these    deities    always   retained    traces    of    their  local 

1  Baethgen,  Beitrdge  zur  scmitischcn  Rcligionsgcschichtc,  p.  66  ff. ;  Jeremias,  "  Sy- 
rien  und  Phonizien  "  (in  Saussaye's  Lehrbuch  der  Religionsgeschichie) . 

2  Rawlinson,  History  of  Phoenicia;  Pietschmann,  Gcschichtc  der  Phonizier)  Jere- 
mias, op.  cit. 

3  Article  "  Esmun  "  in  Roscher's  Lcxikon  ;  article  in  Orientalische  Studien  Noldeke 
gewidmet.  Of  the  vague  group  known  as  the  Kabiri  (the  r  great  ones,'  seven  in 
number,  with  Eshmun  as  eighth)  we  have  little  information  ;  on  the  diffusion  of 
their  cult  in  Grecian  lands  see  Roscher,  op.  cit.,  article  "  Megaloi  Theoi." 


GODS  333 

nature.1  The  same  remark  is  to  be  made  of  the  South  Arabian 
gods  known  to  us ;  they  were  locally  important,  but  we  have 
little  information  concerning  their  characters.2 

765.  The  clearest  example  of  the  orderly  advance  of  a  deity  to 
preeminence  is  afforded  by  the  Hebrew  Yahweh  (Jehovah).  Origi- 
nally, it  would  seem,  a  local  deity,  the  god  of  certain  tribes  on  the 
northern  boundary  of  Arabia,3  he  was  adopted  by  the  Hebrews 
under  conditions  which  are  not  quite  clear,  and  was  developed  by 
them  in  accordance  with  their  peculiar  genius.  At  first  morally  and 
intellectually  crude,  he  became  as  early  as  the  eighth  century  B.C. 
ethically  high  and  practically  omnipotent.4  For  many  centuries  he 
was  regarded  merely  as  the  most  powerful  of  the  gods,  superior 
to  the  deities  of  other  nations,  and  it  was  only  after  the  begin- 
ning of  our  era  that  the  Hebrew  thought  discarded  all  other 
gods  and  made  "Yahweh"  synonymous  with  "God."  In  each 
period  of  their  history  the  conception  that  the  Hebrews  had  of 
him  was  in  accord  with  the  economic  and  intellectual  features  of 
the  time.5 

766.  A  word  may  be  added  respecting  the  Semitic  titles  Ilu,  or 
El,  and  Elohim,  which  have  been  supposed  by  some  recent  writers 
to  prove  the  existence  of  an  early  monotheism,  particularly  in 
Southern  Arabia.  The  terms  mean  simply  *  god,'  and  were  applied 
by  early  Semitic  communities  to  any  deity,  particularly  to  the  lo- 
cal god.  In  the.  Arabia  of  Mohammed's  time  a  tribe  would  call 
its  deity  simply  "  the  god,"  a  sufficient  designation  of  him  for  the 

1  Wellhausen,  Rcstc  arabischen  Heidcnl  times,  pp.  21  ff.,  45  ff. ;  W.  R.  Smith,  Kin- 
ship and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia,  chap,  vi,  note  8  ;  chap,  viii,  note  2  ;  article  "  Du- 
sares"  in  the  Anthropological  Essays  presented  to  F.  II'.  Putnam. 

-  Mordmann,  Himyarische  Inschriftot;  Mordmann  and  Miiller,  Sabdische  Denk- 
mdler\   Barton,  Semitic  Origins,  p.  127  ff. 

3  His  original  seat  is  uncertain  ;  by  some  scholars  he  is  regarded  as  an  old  North 
Semitic  deity,  but  the  grounds  for  this  view  are  not  convincing.  The  occurrences  of 
the  name  outside  of  the  Hebrew  region  throw  little  or  no  light  on  his  origin.  Cf. 
Delitzsch,  Paradies  ;  Baudissin,  Studien  zur  semitischen  Religionsgeschichte  ;  Barton, 
Sanitie  Origins,  chap.  vii. 

4  On  his  position  in  the  seventh  century  cf.  W.  F.  Bade,  in  Transactions  of  the 
American  Philological  Association,  1908. 

5  For  the  Old  Testament  statements  see  C.  G.  Montefiore,  Origin  and  Growth  of 
Religion  as  illustrated  by  the  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Hebrews  (Hibbert  Lectures, 
1892),  Index,  s.v.  Yahweh. 


334     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

place  ; 1  this  designation,  in  Arabic  al-ilahu,  came  to  be  pronounced 
"  Allah,"  and  this  familar  term,  as  is  remarked  above,  was  adopted 
by  Mohammed  and  expanded  (probably  under  the  influence  of 
some  advanced  Arabian  circle  of  thinkers  of  his  time)  into  the  con- 
ception of  the  one  only  god,  which  he  and  others  had  derived  from 
Christians  and  Jews.  In  certain  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  also 
"  Elohim  "  stands  for  the  national  god,  conceived  of  as  all-sufficient. 
But  these  are  late  conceptions.  There  is  no  proof  that  in  South 
Arabia  or  in  Babylonia  the  term  Ilu  meant  anything  else  than  the 
1<  >cal  deity,  though  such  a  deity  would  naturally  receive  all  the  attri- 
butes that  his  worshipers  demanded  in  their  religious  constructions. 
Most  of  the  appellations  of  Semitic  deities  are  epithets,  and  while 
this  mode  of  conceiving  of  the  gods  militated  against  the  develop- 
ment of  them  into  distinct  personalities  and  the  construction  of  a 
pantheon,  it  was  favorable,  on  the  other  hand,  to  isolation  and  to  the 
tendency  to  elevate  any  favorite  deity  to  a  position  of  preeminence. 
767.  Greece.  The  Greeks,  with  their  rich  imagination  and  artis- 
tic feeling,  filled  the  world  with  divine  figures,  well-defined  types  of 
Greek  character,  ideals  of  Greek  thought.  Greece  alone  has  con- 
structed a  true  pantheon,  a  community  of  gods  all  individualized, 
but  all  compacted  into  a  family  or  a  body  of  government.  The 
question  of  their  historical  development  involves  great  difficulties, 
partly  because  the  wide  diffusion  of  their  cults  in  Hellas  occasioned 
many  local  expansions  of  the  original  conceptions  in  the  various 
regions,  partly  because  most  of  the  deities  appear  fully  or  almost 
fully  formed  in  the  earliest  literary  monuments,  so  that  we  are 
dependent  on  cultic  procedures  and  passing  allusions  for  a  knowl- 
edge of  their  preliterary  character.  Without,  then,  attempting  an 
investigation  of  the  obscure  prehistoric  theogonic  period,  the  gen- 
eral lines  of  growth  of  some  of  the  principal  divine  personages 
may  be  followed  (as  far  as  the  data  permit)  as  examples  of  the  way 
in  which  the  great  gods  were  gradually  created.2 


i  He  was  thus  supreme  for  the  particular  tribe,  though  not  universal ;  cf.  article 
"Arabs  (Ancient)  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  Slates;  Gruppe,  Griechische  Mythologies  articles  on 
the  various  deities  in  Roscher's  Lcxikon. 


GODS  335 

768.  Zeus,  originally  doubtless  a  sky-god  (not  the  sun),  repre- 
sents an  old  Indo-European  divine  conception,  found  substantially 
also  among  all  the  great  peoples  of  antiquity,  as  well  as  in  many 
half-civilized  tribes.  But  nowhere  has  he  attained  so  eminent  a 
position  as  in  Greece.  The  Hindu  Dyaus  (the  '  shining  one  ') l  is 
not  prominent  in  the  Vedic  mythology  or  in  later  times,  and  the 
Mazdean  Ahura  Mazda,  if  he  was  originally  the  sky,  had  dropped 
his  physical  characteristics  and  become  only  a  spirit ;  the  Latin 
Jupiter  approaches  Zeus  most  nearly  in  name  and  character.  A 
sky-god  is  naturally  conceived  of  as  universal  ruler,2  but  in  any 
particular  region  he  assumes  the  characteristics  of  the  ruling  human 
personages  of  the  place  and  time.  Zeus  appears  first  as  a  barbarian 
chieftain  with  the  ordinary  qualities  of  such  persons.  Stories  that 
have  come  down  about  him  reflect  a  period  of  what  now  seems 
immorality,  though  it  was  the  recognized  morality  of  the  time ;  he 
is  deceitful  and  changeable  and  completely  unregardful  of  any 
definite  marriage  laws.  His  cult  in  some  places  (for  example,  in 
Arcadia)  had  savage  features.  Whether  he  had  originally  in  the 
Hellenic  world  a  special  home,  and  if  so  what  it  was,  cannot  now 
be  determined.3 

769.  In  the  historical  period  he  appears  as  a  chief  god  in  many 
places  in  Greece,  gradually  absorbs  the  functions  of  other  gods, 
and  receives  numerous  titles  derived  from  places  and  functions.  He 
is  the  father  of  gods  and  men,  but  not  the  sole  creator  of  the  world. 
His  gradual  rise  in  moral  character  may  be  traced  in  the  literature 
In  Homer  he  is  a  universalized  Agamemnon,  with  very  much  the  in- 
tellectual and  moral  qualities  of  Agamemnon  ;  a  process  of  growth 

1  Formally  the  names  Dyaus,  Zeus,  and  Ju  (in  Jupiter)  are  identical ;  and  to  these 
may  probably  be  added  the  Teutonic  Tiu  (Tyr). 

2  In  eaily  thought  the  sky  (like  the  earth)  is  in  itself  a  powerful  thing,  a  person- 
ality, and  the  god  who  is  later  supposed  to  inhabit  and  control  it  is  a  definite  figure, 
like,  for  example,  a  tree-god. 

3  From  the  ancient  notices  of  Kronos  it  is  hardly  possible  to  fix  definitely  the 
relation  between  him  and  Zeus.  It  is  probable  that  he  represents  an  older  cult  that 
was  largely  displaced  by  that  of  Zeus.  The  custom  of  human  sacrifice  in  his  cult  led 
to  the  identification  of  him  with  the  Phoenician  (Carthaginian)  Melek  (Moloch),  and 
his  name  has  been  interpreted  (from  upalvu)  as  meaning  'king'  (=  melek)  ;  but 
this  resemblance  does  not  prove  a  Semitic  origin  for  him.  Whether  his  role  as  king  of 
the  Age  of  Gold  was  anything  more  than  a  late  construction  is  not  clear. 


336     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

in  the  conception  of  him  in  the  Homeric  poems  is  indicated  by 
the  incongruities  in  his  portraiture  —  at  one  time  he  is  a  creature 
of  impulse  and  passion,  at  another  time  a  dignified  and  thoughtful 
ruler.  In  Pindar  and  the  tragedians  of  the  fifth  century  he  has  be- 
come the  representative  of  justice  and  order  in  the  world,  and  in  later 
writers  he  comes  to  be  more  specifically  the  embodiment  of  every- 
thing that  is  good  in  the  universe.  He  represents  the  Greek  concep- 
tion of  civic  authority,  and  thus  the  nearest  approach  to  monotheism 
discoverable  in  the  Greek  mythological  system  ;  and  as  embodying 
the  finer  side  of  religious  feeling  he  both  punishes  and  forgives  sin. 
770.  Next  in  importance  to  Zeus  as  representative  of  Greek 
religious  thought  stands  Apollo.  The  meaning  of  the  name  and  the 
original  seat  of  the  god  are  obscure ;  he  appears  to  have  been  a 
Pan-Hellenic  deity  ;  he  was  definitely  shaped  by  the  whole  mass  of 
Hellenic  thought.  Originally,  perhaps,  the  local  deity  of  some 
hunting  and  pastoral  region,  and  possessing  the  quasi-universal 
attributes  of  such  deities,  the  wide  diffusion  of  his  cult  (through 
conditions  not  known  to  us)  brought  him  into  relation  with  many 
sides  of  life.  While  he  shares  this  many-sidedness  with  several 
other  gods,  the  Greek  genius  of  theographic  organization  assigned 
him  special  headship  in  certain  distinctively  Hellenic  conceptions. 
Zeus  embodied  the  theocratic  idea,  and  Apollo  the  ideas  of  Pan- 
Hellenic  civic  unity,  artistic  feeling,  and  the  more  intimate  ethical 
and  religious  experience.  He  became  the  patron  of  the  Amphicty- 
onic  assembly  and  of  literature  and  art,  and,  especially  in  connection 
with  the  Delphic  oracle,  the  fosterer  of  ethical  conceptions  of  ritual 
and  of  sin.  How  it  came  to  pass  that  these  particular  departments 
were  assigned  him  it  is  not  possible  to  say.  Such  specialization  was 
natural  to  the  Greeks,  but  the  determining  conditions  in  particular 
cases  have  not  been  recorded,  and  can  only  be  surmis'ed.  His 
growth  kept  pace  with  that  of  the  Hellenic  people  —  in  the  Iliad 
he  is  a  partisan,  and  his  words  and  deeds  do  not  always  command 
our  respect,  but  in  the  later  theological  constructions  he  throws 
off  his  crudeness.  His  connection  with  the  sun  was  a  natural  con- 
sequence of  his  rise  to  eminence  ;  he  is  not  a  sun-god  in  the  earliest 
literary  remains. 


GODS  337 

771.  Poseidon,  second  only  to  Zeus  in  power,  is  also  of  obscure 
origin.1  His  specific  marine  character  is  certain,  though  as  a  great 
god  he  had  many  relations  and  functions.'2  Possibly  he  was  origi- 
nally the  local  deity  of  some  marine  region,  and  by  reason  of  the 
importance  of  his  native  place,  or  simply  through  the  intimate 
relationship  between  the  Greek  communities,  and  in  accordance 
with  the  Greek  spirit  of  organization,  came  to  be  generally  recog- 
nized as  the  god  of  the  ocean.3  Though  he  was  widely  revered  he 
remained  largely  a  nature  god  —  he  never  attained  the  majesty  and 
moral  supremacy  of  Zeus,  never,  indeed,  represented  specifically 
any  refined  moral  or  religious  conception.  Whether  this  ethical 
and  religious  meagerness  was  a  consequence  of  the  vagueness  of 
the  relation  between  the  sea  and  human  life,  or  of  some  other  fact, 
is  a  point  that  can  hardly  be  determined. 

772.  Hermes,  to  judge  from  his  history,  was  the  creation  of 
some  pastoral  community,  an  ideal  of  rustic  excellence :  fleet  of 
foot,  a  leader  in  popular  amusements,  skilled  in  simple  music,  emi- 
nent in  an  art  much  valued  in  early  times  —  the  art  of  stealing 
cattle.  When  he  was  taken  into  the  circle  of  Greek  theological 
thought  his  swiftness  recommended  him  to  the  position  of  messen- 
ger of  the  gods,4  and  his  function  as  psychopompos,  the  guide  of 
souls  to  the  other  world,  would  then  follow  naturally ;  from  this 
function  it  cannot,  however,  be  inferred  that  he  was  originally  a 
chthonic  deity  —  a  character  that  does  not  accord  with  the  early 
portraitures  of  him.  Like  other  gods  he  grew  morally,  but  he  never 
reached  ethical  distinction.  Skill  in  theft  was  in  early  times  often 
regarded  as  a  virtue,5  and  in  general  he  who  got  the  better  of  his 


1  The  etymology  of  his  name  is  doubtful. 

2  On  his  titles  "earth-shaker"  and  "earth-upholder"  cf.  Gruppe,  Griechische 
Mythologies  p.  1139,  note  2. 

3  Possibly  he  was  originally  the  ocean  itself  conceived  of  as  a  living  and  powerful 
thing,  as  Zeus  (and  so  Varuna  and  Ahura  Mazda)  was  originally  the  physical  sky; 
Okeanos  is  a  great  god  {Iliad,  xiv,  201  ;  Ilesiod,  Theogony,  133). 

4  By  many  writers  he  is  considered  to  have  been  originally  a  wind-god  ;  but  wind, 
though  it  might  suggest  swiftness  (and,  with  some  forcing,  thievishness),  cannot 
account  for  his  other  endowments. 

5  Gen.  xxx,  37  ff . ;  xxxi,  9:  Wellhausen,  Reste  arabischen  Heidentumes,  p.  196; 
Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  (lie  Moral  Ideas,  ii,  17-19. 


338     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

fellows  was  esteemed  a  master  of  good  luck  and  prosperity ;  and 
a  bestower  of  outward  prosperity  Hermes  came  to  be.1  His  main 
quality  was  cleverness,  in  contrast  with  the  intellectual  power  of 
Apollo. 

773.  On  the  other  hand,  another  rustic  figure,  the  Arcadian 
herd-god  Pan,2  never  developed  into  a  great  Hellenic  god.  His 
worship  was  widely  diffused ;  he  appears  often  in  artistic  repre- 
sentations, and  Pindar  thought  him  worthy  of  a  hymn  (of  which, 
unfortunately,  only  fragments  survive),  but  in  general  he  remained 
uncouth  and  half  savage,  a  goatlike  figure,  the  companion  of 
satyrs,  or  (as  the  Homeric  hymn  depicts  him)  a  merrymaker. 
He  seems  to  have  been  an  embodiment  of  the  lower  rustic 
pleasures,  a  local  god,  probably  not  a  divinized  goat.3 

774.  His  name,  however,  taken  to  mean  '  all,'  gave  occasion 
to  fanciful  interpretations.  He  was  so  called,  it  was  said,  because 
he  gave  delight  to  all  the  Immortals ; 4  or  his  person  and  his 
musical  and  other  instruments  were  supposed  to  represent  uni- 
versal nature  —  his  horns  the  rays  of  the  sun  and  the  horns  of 
the  moon,  his  spotted  fawnskin  the  stars,  his  pipe  of  seven  reeds 
the  harmony  of  the  heavens,  his  crook  the  year,  which  returns  on 
itself,  and  so  on.5  The  Stoics  and  the  Orphic  writers  made  him 
Universal  God,  the  creator  of  the  world.6  In  the  popular  cult, 
however,  he  remained  the  merry  patron  of  herds.  The  most  satis- 
factory explanation  of  his  name  is  that  which  derives  it  from  the 
stem  pa,  'feed'  —  he  is  then  "the  goatherd."7  The  story  told 
by  Plutarch,  of  a  voice  heard  crying  on  the  coast  of  Epirus, 
"  Great  Pan  is  dead,"  arose  from  some  misapprehension,  but  no 

1  Odyssey,  xv,  319!:.  Lang  lays  too  much  stress  on  this  fact  {Myth,  Ritual,  and 
Religion,  1st  ed.,  ii,  257). 

2  Gruppe  (Griechische  Mythologie,  p.  13S4)  thinks  (on  grounds  not  clear)  that  he 
was  originally  of  Crete.  3  So  Gruppe,  op.  cit.  A  Homeric  Hymn  to  Pan. 

5  Servius  on  Vergil,  Eclogue  ii,  31. 

6  Roscher,  in  Lexikon,  article  "  Pan,"  col.  1405,  and  in  Festschrift  filr  Joh.  Over- 
beck,  p.  56  ff.  On  the  influence  of  the  Egyptian  cult  of  the  goat-god  of  Mendes  on 
the  conception  of  Pan  see  Roscher,  Lexikon,  article  "  Pan,"  cols.  1373,  1382. 

"  Mannhardt,  Antike  Wald-  und  Feldkulte,  p.  135  f . ;  Roscher,  op.  cit.,  col.  1406; 
Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  v,  431,  and  many  others.  To  this  etymology 
Gruppe  (op.  cit.,  p.  1385)  objects  that  such  a  name  for  a  deity  is  not  probable  for 
primitive  savage  times  ;  he  offers  nothing  in  its  place. 


GODS  339 

precise  explanation  of  its  origin  has  been  given.1  Poets  like  Pindar 
and  Vergil,  disposed  to  preserve  and  dignify  the  old  traditions, 
treat  Pan  respectfully  and  sympathetically,  but  such  constructions 
are  nonpopular.2 

775.  Ares  seems  to  be  the  creation  of  a  war-loving  tribe;  in 
the  Iliad  he  is  a  fierce  warrior,  armed  cap-a-pie,  delighting  in 
battle  and  slaughter.  Through  the  machinations  of  Hera  and 
Athene  he  is  overcome  by  human  heroes,  the  poet's  feeling  being, 
possibly,  contempt  for  the  mere  savage  fighter;  in  fact,  Ares  in 
the  Iliad  is,  from  our  point  of  view,  hardly  a  respectable  charac- 
ter—  he  violates  his  promise,  and  when  wounded  cries  out  like 
a  hurt  child.  But  as  war-god  he  was  widely  revered  in  Greece ; 
in  Thebes  especially  he  was  honored  as  one  of  the  great  gods. 
Hesiod  makes  him  the  son  of  Zeus  and  Hera,3  but  he  never 
attains  moral  or  other  dignity  ;  in  the  popular  cult  he  remained, 
probably,  merely  the  patron  of  war.  In  the  later  artistic  repre- 
sentations he  is  the  ideal  of  warlike  vigor  and  grace.  In  the 
Homeric  hymn  (which  may  be  of  Orphic  origin)  he  is  trans- 
formed into  a  lover  of  peace  and  a  source  of  all  pure  and  lofty 
aspirations  —  a  violent  procedure,  induced  by  the  poet's  unwill- 
ingness that  an  Olympian  should  represent  anything  but  what 
was  morally  good. 

776.  The  process  of  development  of  a  god's  character  is  illus- 
trated with  special  clearness  by  the  history  of  Dionysus.  It  is 
generally  agreed  that  he  was  of  foreign  origin,  an  importation 
from  Thrace.  The  features  of  his  earliest  cult  known  to  us  are 
marked  by  bald  savagery.  His  worshipers  indulged  in  wild 
orgies,  probably  excited  by  intoxicating  drinks,  tore  to  pieces  a 
goat  (as  in  Thrace)  or  a  bull  (as  in  Crete)  and  ate  the  flesh  raw  ; 4 
and  the  evidence  goes  to  show  that  they  practiced  human  sacri- 
fice. All  these  procedures  have  parallels  in  known  savage  cults. 
Omophagic  orgies  are  described  by  Nilus  (among  the  Saracens), 


1  Plutarch,  De  Dcfcctu  Oraculorwn,  17 ;  Reinach,  Orpheus  (Eng.  tr.),  p.  41. 

2  Pindar,  ed.  W.  Christ,  Fragments,  95  ft.  ;J  Theogony,  922  f. 

4  Euripides,  Baeehce,  131  f.  (cf.  .Eschylus,  The  Seven  against  Thebes,  541  ;  Por- 
phyry, De  Abstinoitia,  §  13). 


340     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

and  such  customs  are  reported  as  existing  or  having  existed  in 
the  Fiji  Islands  and  elsewhere.1  Among  many  tribes  intoxication 
is  a  common  preparation  for  the  work  of  the  shaman;  and  human 
sacrifice  has  been  practiced  in  all  parts  of  the  world.  There  is 
nothing  peculiar  in  the  office  of  soothsayer  that  accompanied  the 
Dionysiac  cult ;  mantic  persons  and  procedures  have  formed  a 
prominent  part  of  the  constitution  of  the  lower  peoples  everywhere. 
777.  Dionysus,  in  a  word,  was  originally  the  local  god  of  a 
savage  community ;  the  data  are  not  sufficient  to  fix  precisely  his 
original  place  and  the  original  conception  of  him.  His  mantic 
function  does  not  necessarily  show  that  he  was  a  ghost.  It  is 
true  that  the  dead  were  often  consulted  (and  necromancy  long 
survived  among  civilized  peoples),  but  any  spirit  or  god  might 
take  possession  of  a  worshiper  and  make  him  the  vehicle  of 
revelation.  Nor  is  the  phallus-cult  peculiar  to  Dionysus ;  this  cult 
is  widely  diffused,  and  its  origin  is  to  be  referred  not  specifically 
to  the  recognition  of  the  general  generative  power  of  nature,  but 
to  the  mystery  of  human  life.2  In  his  original  home  Dionysus 
seems  to  have  represented  everything  that  touched  the  life  of  his 
people.  When,  at  a  certain  time,  he  passed  into  Hellas  (carried, 
doubtless,  by  immigrants),  he  took  on  the  character  necessitated 
by  his  new  surroundings  —  a  process  of  transformation  began. 
Exact  chronological  data  are  lacking,  but  as  in  the  Iliad  3  he  is 
the  son  of  Zeus,  he  must  have  been  adopted  by  the  Greeks  very 
early.  In  his  new  home  he  became  the  patron  of  the  vine.4  In  a 
vine-growing  region  any  prominent  deity  may  become  a  wine-god  ; 5 
but  the  special  connection  of  Dionysus  with  wine  in  Greece  sug- 
gests that  in  his  earlier  home  he  was  somehow  identified  with  in- 
toxicating drinks.  With  vegetation  in  general  also  he  may  have 
been  connected  in  Thrace  —  such  a  relation  would  be  natural  for 


1  Nili  Opera,  p.  27  ;  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  p.  33S  f. ;  Spencer, 
Principles  of  Sociology,  i,  288.  2  See  above,  §  384  ff.  3  /Had,  xiv,  325. 

4  Perhaps  the  description  of  him  in  the  Iliad  (loc.  cit.)  as  "  a  joy  to  mortals  " 
refers  to  wine  ;  cf.  Hesiod,  T/icogony,  94 1,  where  he  is  called  the  "  bright  joyous  one." 

5  As,  for  example,  the  Arabian  clan  god  Dusares  (Dhu  ash-Shara),  carried  by  the 
Nabateans  northward,  was  brought  into  relation  with  the  viticulture  of  that  region. 
Cf.  above,  §  764. 


GODS  341 

a  clan  god  —  and  in  that  case  his  Hellenic  role  as  god  of  vegeta- 
tion would  follow  as  a  matter  of  course ;  or,  if  he  advanced  from 
the  vine  to  the  whole  of  vegetable  nature,  the  development  is 
intelligible. 

778.  When  and  on  what  grounds  he  was  accepted  as  one  of 
the  Olympians  is  not  clear ;  1  perhaps  it  was  on  account  of  the 
importance  of  vine  culture,  perhaps  from  the  mysterious  charac- 
ter of  his  cult,  the  enthusiasm  of  divine  inspiration  reflected  in  the 
frenzy  of  the  worshipers,  or  from  these  causes  combined  ;  his  later 
name,  Bacchus,  which  seems  to  refer  to  cultic  orgiastic  shout- 
ing, would  appear  to  indicate  this  element  of  the  cult  as  a  main 
source  of  his  popularity.  Once  established  as  a  great  god  he 
was  credited  with  various  functions.  The  Greek  drama  arose  in 
connection  with  his  worship,  and  at  Eleusis  the  old  element  of 
seizure  by  the  god  was  transformed  by  the  higher  thought  of  the 
time  into  the  conception  of  ethical  union  with  the  deity.  Thus  the 
old  savage  god  came  to  stand  for  man's  highest  aspirations. 

779.  As  among  other  peoples,  so  among  the  Greeks  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  Underworld  was  gradually  organized,  and  a  head 
thereof  appointed.2  Already  in  the  Iliad  and  in  Hesiod  3  the  uni- 
verse is  divided  into  three  parts  under  the  rule  of  the  Kronids 
Zeus,  Poseidon,  and  Aides  respectively ;  the  earth,  however,  and 
Olympos,  says  Poseidon,  are  the  common  property  of  them  all  — 
there  was  no  complete  governmental  separation  between  the 
Underworld  and  the  Upperworld.  The  Greeks,  with  their  joy  in 
the  present,  gave  comparatively  little  prominence  to  the  future 
(being  herein  sharply  contrasted  with  the  Egyptians). 

780.  The  title  generally  given  to  the  underground  chief,  Hades 
(apparently  '  the  invisible  one '),  indicates  the  vagueness  that  at- 
tached to  this  deity.4  In  the  Iliad  he  is  a  dark  and  dread  divinity. 
The  precise  significance  of  his  title  Plouton 5  is  uncertain ;  but 
under  this  name  he  is  connected  in  the  myths  with  processes  of 

1  On  this  point  cf.  Miss  J.  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion, 
p.  366.         2  See  above,  §  6S0  f.         3  Iliad,  xv,  184  ff. ;  Hesiod,  Theogony,  453  ff. 

4  He  is  not  always  in  mythological  constructions  distinct  from  Zeus — in  Iliad, 
ix,  457,  it  is  Zeus  Katachthonios  who  is  lord  below. 

5  /Eschylus,  Prometheus  Bound,  S06. 


342     INTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

vegetation  —  it  is  Plouton  who  carries  off  Persephone,  leaving  the 
world  in  the  deadness  of  winter.  The  figure  of  the  underground 
deity  appears  to  have  taken  shape  from  the  combination  of  two 
mythological  conceptions  —  the  underground  fructifying  forces  of 
nature,  and  the  assemblage  of  the  dead  in  a  nether  world  or  king- 
dom.1 His  only  moral  significance  lay  in  his  relation  to  oaths, 
wherein,  perhaps,  is  an  approach  to  the  idea  of  a  divine  judge 
below  the  earth.2 

781.  The  female  deities  of  the  Greeks  are  no  less  elaborately 
werked  out  than  the  male  gods,  and,  like  these,  are  types  of 
human  character  and  representatives  of  human  pursuits.3 

782.  The  great  goddess  Hera  is  in  Homer  attached  especially 
to  Argos,  Sparta,  and  Mycenae,  but  at  a  very  early  time  was  Pan- 
Hellenic.  The  meaning  of  her  name  and  her  origin  are  uncertain. 
There  is  no  good  ground  for  regarding  her  as  having  been  origi- 
nally a  moon-goddess  (Selene  was  the  real  moon-goddess).  What 
is  certain  is  that  she  had  a  special  relation  to  women  and  particu- 
larly to  childbirth  ;  but  such  a  function  is  so  generally  attributed 
to  some  goddess  that  we  can  only  suppose  that  she  rose  to  emi- 
nence through  local  conditions  unknown  to  us.  The  most  interest- 
ing point  about  her  is  that  she  came  to  be  the  representative  of 
the  respectable  Greek  matron,  jealous  of  her  wifely  rights,  holding 
herself  aloof  from  love  affairs,  a  home  person,  entitled  to  respect 
for  the  decency  of  her  life,  but  without  great  womanly  charm. 

783.  By  a  natural  mythological  law  she  was  regarded  as  the 
consort  of  Zeus,  and  gradually  acquired  dignity  without,  however, 
ever  coming  to  be  a  distinct  embodiment  of  any  form  of  intellec- 
tual or  moral  life.  As  Zeus  embodied  the  conception  of  civil  and 
political  headship,  so  Hera  appears  to  have  embodied  the  idea  of 
the  wife  as  controller  of  the  purely  domestic  affairs  of  the  family, 
her  business  being  the  bringing  up  of  children  and  the  oversight 
of  servants  —  duties  that  may  have  seemed  at  an  early  period  not 
to  require  great  moral  and  intellectual  power. 

1  Cf.  the  development  of  Osiris  (above,  §  728). 

2  Cf.  Greek  Horkos,  and  the  oath  by  the  Styx. 

3  Cf.  Miss  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  chap.  vi. 


GODS  343 

784.  A  distincter  form  is  that  of  Demeter,  who,  whatever  the 
meaning  of  her  name,1  certainly  represents  the  fertile  earth  —  a 
figure  similar  to  hundreds  of  others  in  the  world,  and  doubtless 
existing  at  various  points  in  Greece  under  local  names ;  she  prob- 
ably represents  a  unification  of  the  different  conceptions  of  the 
fertile  earth,  a  process  that  went  on  in  the  natural  way  in  Greek 
thought,  and  was  formulated  by  the  poets.  Her  historical  con- 
nection with  the  great  Asian  earth-goddess,  the  Mother-Goddess, 
is  uncertain.  Demeter,  however,  never  became  the  great  earth- 
mother  ;  she  remained  attached  to  the  soil,  except  that  in  the 
Eleusinian  mysteries  she  (probably  as  patron  of  fertility)  was 
allegorized  into  a  representation  of  those  moral  conceptions  of 
the  future  that  gradually  arose  in  Greece. 

785.  The  group  of  deities  that  may  be  called  maiden  goddesses 
is  of  peculiar  interest.  A  maiden  goddess  is  originally  an  inde- 
pendent deity  who,  for  whatever  reason,  has  not  been  brought  by 
the  myth-makers  into  marriage  relations  with  a  male  deity.  Gener- 
ally such  independence  is  a  result  of  the  fact  that  the  goddess  is  the 
representative  of  fertility.  She  may,  in  accordance  with  early  cus- 
toms of  human  society,  choose  temporary  consorts  at  will  (as  is  the 
case  with  Ishtar) ;  she  may  be  in  her  sole  person  (like  the  Dea 
Mater)  the  productive  power  of  the  world ;  or  she  may  remain  a 
virgin,  occupied  only  with  the  care  of  some  department  of  life  (so 
Athene  and  Artemis).  Which  of  these  characters  she  takes  depends 
on  early  social  conditions  and  on  the  nature  of  the  local  theistic 
organization.    In  Greece  these  goddesses  assume  various  shapes. 

786.  There  is  first  the  primitive  divine  Power  of  vegetation, 
called  simply  the  Kore,  the  Maiden,  a  figure  ultimately  identical 
with  Demeter  and  in  the  later  constructions  represented  as  her 
daughter.  She  is  not  necessarily  to  be  regarded  as  a  development 
out  of  an  original  corn-spirit.  Her  title  "maiden"  may  be  com- 
pared with  the  Semitic  title  "mistress,"  mentioned  above,  and  with 
the  names  expressing  family  relations,  "  sister,"  "mother"  — only 
this   particular  designation  defines   her   simply   as   an   unmarried 

1  Cf.  Roscher,  Lexikon,  s.v. ;  Miss  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek 
Religion,  p.  271  ff. 


344     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

female  divinity.  The  "  corn-maiden  "  of  modern  European  folk-lore 
may  be  the  cultic  degradation  of  an  old  deity.1  The  title  Kore  be- 
came almost  a  proper  name,  though  the  designation  was  not  so 
definite  as  in  the  cases  of  Bel  and  Ishtar.2 

787.  As  the  Kore  is  the  representative  of  vegetable  life,  so 
Hestia  stands  in  general  for  the  indoor  life,  the  family.  She  long 
retained  this  local  character,  but  gradually  assumed  the  position  of 
the  great  goddess  of  the  home  center,  the  hearth,3  and  was  con- 
nected with  the  household  fires  and  festivals.  She  represents  the 
more  intimate  social  life  of  the  family  in  contrast  with  Hera,  who 
stands  for  the  government  of  the  household. 

788.  The  development  of  the  functions  of  Artemis  is  .compara- 
tively clear.  The  origin  of  the  name  is  doubtful,  but  in  the  earliest 
records  she  is  connected  with  the  fertile  earth,  with  vegetable  and 
also  with  animal  life.4  This  character  indicates  that  she  was  at  one 
time  a  local,  all-sufficient  deity,  though  it  is  hardly  possible  to  de- 
termine her  original  seat.  As  a  local  goddess  in  the  hunting  area 
she  was  naturally  connected  with  the  chase,  and  as  a  female  divin- 
ity she  was  the  patroness  of  marriage  and  the  protector  of  human 
birth.  Her  original  nature  as  the  maiden  appears  in  the  represen- 
tation of  her  as  a  virgin  which  occurs  in  Homer.5  There  is  no 
contradiction  between  this  character  and  her  function  of  presiding 
over  marriage  and  birth  if  we  consider  her  as  a  local  goddess  who 
from  one  point  of  view  was  regarded  as  a  simple  maiden,  from 
another  point  of  view  as  the  protector  of  women.6  Thus  invested 
with  the  control  of  these  important  features  of  life  she  naturally 
became  a  general  patroness,  a  guardian.  Later  she  was  connected 
with  Apollo  as  his  sister,  exactly  by  what  steps  we  do  not  know ; 

1  Compare  Mannhardt,  Mythologische  Forschungen,  p.  320  ff. ;  Frazer,  Golden 
Bough,  2d  ed.,  ii,  176  ff.  2  Compare  Miss  Harrison,  op.  cit.,  p.  271  ff. 

3  By  her  name  she  is  identified  with  the  hearth,  as  similarly  Zeus  is  identified 
with  the  sky.  The  hearth  was  the  center  of  the  home,  and  had  wide  cultic  signifi- 
cance. The  name  Hestia  embodies  not  the  divinization  of  a  concrete  object,  but  the 
recognition  of  the  divine  person  presiding  over  the  object  in  question. 

4  Roscher,  Lexikon;  Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States.         5  Odyssey,  xx,  71. 

6  The  representation  of  her  as  the  slayer  of  women  with  her  "  kindly  arrows  " 
(Odyssey,  xx,  67),  that  is,  by  an  easy  death,  is  in  keeping  with  the  early  idea  that 
death  was  caused  by  some  supernatural  Power;  so  Apollo  slays  (Iliad,  xxiv,  759). 


GODS  345 

and  in  the  mythical  constructions  she  was  represented  as  the  daugh- 
ter of  Zeus  and  Leto.1 

789.  The  Hellenic  goddess  Artemis  is  to  be  distinguished  from 
the  Ephesian  deity  to  whom  the  Greeks  gave  the  same  name, 
though  when  the  Greeks  came  into  close  contact  with  Asia  Minor 
the  two  were  identified.  And  in  fact,  though  in  historical  origin  the 
two  deities  are  to  be  kept  apart,  they  doubtless  go  back  to  the 
same  conception.  The  Ephesian  goddess  was  the  Great  Mother  — 
she  stood  specifically  for  the  idea  of  maternity  which  lies  at  the 
basis  of  the  world  ;  the  Greek  divinity,  beginning  as  a  local  protect- 
ress, took  on  larger  functions  which  gave  her  general  resemblance 
to  the  universal  mother. 

790.  The  relation  between  Artemis  and  Hekate  is  an  illustration 
of  the  process  of  coordination  and  harmonization  that  went  on  con- 
tinually among  the  Greeks.  Hekate  does  not  appear  in  Homer, 
but  in  Hesiod  she  has  the  full  form  of  a  great  deity  —  she  exer- 
cises control  over  heaven,  earth,  and  sea ; 2  and  at  a  later  period 
she  becomes  similarly  connected  with  the  Underworld.  This  variety 
of  functions  can  be  explained  only  by  the  supposition  that  she  also 
was  a  local  deity,  who,  like  all  local  deities,  was  regarded  as  univer- 
sal.3 As  the  meaning  of  her  name  is  uncertain  and  her  original 
region  unknown,  it  can  be  only  surmised  that  her  cult  spread  grad- 
ually in  Greece  through  the  growing  unification  of  the  Hellenic 
states.  Like  Artemis  she  presided  over  human  birth.  The  functions 
of  the  two  goddesses  being  so  nearly  the  same  (they  appear  to 
represent  similar  conceptions  arising  at  different  centers),  it  was 
natural  that  in  the  later  times  they  should  be  identified  or  closely 
associated. 

1  Leto  is  a  Titaness  (Hesiod,  Thcogony,  404  ff.),  an  old  local  goddess,  naturally 
a  patron  of  children,  and  so  of  similar  nature  with  Artemis,  with  whom  she  was  often 
joined  in  worship.  Her  connection  with  Apollo  arose  possibly  from  a  collocation  of 
her  cult  with  his  in  some  place ;  in  such  collocations  the  goddess  would  become,  in 
mythological  constructions,  the  mother,  sister,  or  wife  of  the  god.  This  relation  once 
established,  stories  explaining  it  would  spring  up  as  a  matter  of  course.  The  fact  that 
she  was  later  identified  with  the  Asian  Great  Mother  indicates  that  she  also  had  a 
universal  character.  2  Hesiod,  Thcogony,  4  1 1  ff . 

3  She  was,  perhaps,  an  underground  deity,  or  the  product  of  the  fusion  of  two 
deities,  one  of  whom  was  chthonic. 


346     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

791.  Athene  is  said  in  a  late  myth  (not  in  the  Iliad)  to  have  been 
born  from  the  head  of  Zeus,  a  representation  that  has  led  many 
recent  scholars  to  regard  her  as  the  goddess  of  the  thunderstorm, 
the  lightning  that  cleaves  the  clouds,  the  divine  warrior  that  slays 
the  dragon.  But  ingenious  and  attractive  as  this  interpretation  is, 
to  determine  the  origin  of  the  goddess  it  is  safer  to  go  to  the 
earlier  forms  of  her  cult.  At  a  very  early  period  she  is  connected 
with  ordinary  social  occupations.1  She  is  the  patroness  of  the  cultiva- 
tion of  the  land  ;  in  Athens,  where  the  olive  was  important,  it  was 
she  who  bestowed  this  tree  on  the  city ;  here  she  is  the  maiden, 
the  genius,  the  divine  patron  of  vegetation.  She  presided  over  the 
domestic  employments  of  women,  spinning  and  weaving  —  that  is, 
she  is  the  goddess  of  household  work.2  As  is  the  case  with  so 
many  divine  patrons  of  men's  early  simple  employments,  she  grew 
with  the  community  and  became  gradually  a  great  goddess,  and 
necessarily  a  patroness  of  cities.  In  her  character  of  general 
patroness  she  became  a  goddess  of  war  —  a  necessity  for  all 
ancient  states.  On  the  other  hand,  in  a  community  (like  Athens, 
for  example)  where  intellectual  insight  was  highly  esteemed  she 
would  naturally  become  the  representative  of  cleverness  and 
wisdom. 

792.  The  peculiar  nature  of  the  wisdom  that  is  prized  by  men 
depends  on  time  and  place.  In  the  earliest  periods  what  Athene 
bestows  is  a  high  degree  of  common  sense  and  skill  in  devising 
ways  and  means,  such  as  Odysseus  shows.  In  later  times  of  larger 
cultivation  she  bestows  wisdom  in  the  higher  sense,  intellectual 
breadth.  Exactly  how  it  came  to  pass  that  the  two  figures  Artemis 
and  Athene  developed  on  such  different  lines  we  are  unable  to  say 
—  the  beginning  of  the  divergence  goes  back  to  times  of  which  we 
have  no  records  ;  but,  as  gods  represent  the  elements  of  human  life, 
it  was  natural  that  a  gradual  differentiation  should  take  place ;  the 
same  general  conception  would  be  particularized  in  different  ways 
in  different  places,  just  as  divergent  forms  of  the  same  original  word 

1  Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States;  Roscher,  Lexikon. 

2  Thus  the  Greeks  endeavored  to  embody  in  divine  figures  all  sides  of  family  life. 
The  division  of  functions  between  Hera,  Hestia,  and  Athene  is  clear. 


GODS  347 

acquire  different  significations  in  speech.1  As  for  the  later  combi- 
nation of  these  deities  with  heavenly  bodies  and  many  other  things, 
these  are  to  be  regarded  as  the  product  of  later  poetical  imagination 
and  the  tendency  to  universalize  all  great  deities. 

793.  Aphrodite  exhibits  more  clearly  than  any  other  deity  the 
process  or  the  direction  of  the  Hellenization  of  a  foreign  god.  Her 
titles  Cypris,  Paphia,  Cytherea,  as  well  as  her  connection  with 
Adonis,  point,  as  is  generally  held,  to  a  Semitic  origin  2 ;  she  seems 
to  have  been  identical  with  the  great  Babylonian,  Assyrian,  and 
Syrian  goddess  Ishtar  (Astarte).3  Received  into  the  Greek  pan- 
theon at  a  very  early  time  (already  in  the  Iliad  she  is  one  of  the 
Olympians),  she  yet  shows  the  main  characteristics  of  the  Semitic 
deity 4  —  she  is  especially  the  representative  of  fertility  and  sexual 
passion,  and  also  has  relation  to  war.  The  lines  of  development, 
however,  were  different  in  different  communities.  In  Babylonia  and 
Assyria  Ishtar  became  a  great  universal  national  deity,  charged  par- 
ticularly with  the  care  of  all  the  interests  of  the  state,  while  in  Syria 
and  Canaan  the  corresponding  figures  (Attar,  Ashtart)  remained 
to  a  great  extent  local,  and  were  especially  prominent  in  festivals. 

794.  In  Greece  the  conception  of  Aphrodite  was  worked  out  in 
a  non-Semitic  way  in  two  directions.  By  poets  and  philosophers 
she  was  made  the  beneficent  producer  of  all  things,  shedding  her 
charm  over  animate  and  inanimate  nature ; 5  and  the  sentiment  of 
love,  for  which  she  stood,  was  exalted  into  a  pure  affection,  the 
basis  of  married  life.  The  baser  side  of  her  cult,  with  its  sexual 
license  (Asiatic  of  origin),  remained  along  with  the  higher  concep- 
tion of  her,6  but  the  latter  was  the  special  contribution  that  the 
Greeks  made  to  her  development. 

1  As,  for  example,  '  fragile'  and  '  frail,'  'intension'  and  '  intention,'  '  providential' 
and  f  prudential,'  and  many  other  groups  of  this  sort. 

2  For  the  view  that  she  was  a  native  /Egean  deity  see  Farnell,  Greece  ami  Babylon, 
p.  97.   Later  Semitic  influences,  in  any  case,  must  be  assumed. 

3  No  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  name  Aphrodite  has  as  yet  been  offered. 

4  See  above,  §  762. 

5  Homeric  Hymn  to  Aphrodite  :  Euripides,  Medea,  S35  ff. ;  Lucretius.  Ishtar  also 
is  the  mother  of  all  things,  but  the  idea  is  not  developed  by  the  Semites. 

6  Compare  the  details  given  in  J.  Rosenbaum's  Geschichte  der  Lustsettche  im 
Altertume, 


348     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

795.  The  theistic  scheme  of  the  old  Greek  polytheistic  period  is 
the  broadest  and  finest  that  the  ancient  polytheism  produced.  It 
recognized  a  divine  element  in  all  sides  of  human  life,  from  the 
lowest  to  the  highest ;  it  marked  out  the  various  directions  of 
human  feeling  and  effort,  and  in  its  final  outcome  it  reached  the 
conception  of  a  unity  in  the  divine  government  of  the  world,  and 
gave  expression  to  man's  best  aspirations  for  the  present  and  for 
the  future.  True,  it  gave  way  at  last  to  philosophy ;  but  it  had 
recognized  those  elements  of  thought  on  which  philosophy  was 
based.  The  Persian  and  Hebrew  systems  expressed  more  defi- 
nitely the  idea  of  a  divine  monocracy,  and  lent  themselves  easily  to 
the  formation  of  a  religious  society,  a  church,  but  they  did  not 
escape  the  limitations  of  mere  national  feeling.  The  Greeks  founded 
no  church  —  they  formulated  universal  ethical  and  religious  con- 
ceptions, and  left  the  development  to  the  individual.  All  the  great 
ancient  religions  reached  a  high  ethical  plane  and  a  practical  mono- 
theism, but  the  Greek  was  the  richest  of  all  in  the  recognition  of 
the  needs  of  humanity. 

796.  Rome.  The  Roman  pantheon  (if  the  Italian  divine  com- 
munity can  properly  be  called  a  pantheon)  had  not  the  fullness  and 
fineness  of  the  Greek  —  in  accordance  with  the  Roman  genius  it 
included  only  deities  having  special  relations  with  the  family  and 
its  work  and  with  the  state.1  The  rich  Roman  development  of 
specific  gods  of  the  home  is  referred  to  above.2  The  old  nature  gods 
long  retained  their  place,  doubtless,  in  popular  worship,  but  were 
gradually  subordinated  to  and  absorbed  in  the  larger  divine  figures. 
And  the  great  gods  themselves  began  at  an  early  time  to  be  assimi- 
lated to  Greek  deities  and  to  assume  their  functions  and  even  their 
names.3 

797.  The  most  important  of  the  nature  gods  are  Sol,  Luna,  and 
Tellus  (primitive  figures  that  soon  gave  way  to  deities  divorced  from 

1  Aust,  Religion  der  R'6mer\  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals;  id.  The  Religions  Expe- 
rience of  the  Roman  People;  articles  in  Roscher's  Lexikon;  Mommsen,  History  of 
Rome  (ICng.  tr.),  bk.  i,  chap.  xii.  2  §  702  ff. 

3  Hence  a  confusion  of  names  that  appears  even  to-day,  and  in  books  otherwise 
careful,  as,  for  example,  in  the  Bohn  translations  of  Greek  works,  in  which  the  Greek 
deities  are  throughout  called  by  Latin  names. 


GODS  349 

the  physical  sun,  moon,  and  earth),  and  the  patrons  of  agricultural 
work,  Consus  and  Ops,  Liber  and  Libera,  Silvanus  and  Faunus. 
The  natural  features  represented  by  these  deities  did  not  disappear 
entirely  from  the  greater  deities,  but  were  purified  and  elevated. 
Anna  Perenna,  for  example,  as  representative  of  the  round  of  years, 
remained  by  the  side  of  Janus,  but  he  embodied  this  conception  in 
a  larger  civic  way. 

798.  The  greatest  of  the  Roman  gods,  Juppiter1  or  Jupiter,  is 
identical  in  name  with  Zeus,  but  differs  from  him  in  mythological 
development  and  in  the  final  form  of  his  character.  As  sky-god  he 
was  connected  with  atmospheric  phenomena  (rain  and  lightning) 
and  so  naturally  with  wine  and  other  crops.  But  as  chief  god  of 
the  state  he  speedily  rose  above  these  connections,  and  as  Optimus 
Maximus  became  the  representative  of  all  Roman  virtues.  Along 
with  this  native  development  he  was  in  later  times  more  or  less 
identified  with  Zeus.  By  his  side  stood  the  national  deity  Quirinus, 
who  remained  a  local  patron  and  never  rose  to  large  proportions. 
Related  to  him  are  Sancus  and  Dius  Fidius,  who  represented  some 
primitive  conceptions  similar  to  those  belonging  to  his  early  form, 
but  they  did  not  develop  into  great  gods.  These  three  were  practi- 
cally absorbed  by  him,  but  the  history  of  this  process  is  obscure. 

799.  Janus,  the  guardian  of  the  entrance  to  the  house  (Janua) 
—  a  function  of  prime  importance  in  early  times,  had  a  prominent 
place  in  the  cult.  He  was  invoked  at  the  beginning  of  the  day,  the 
month,  and  the  year  ;  in  the  Salian  hymn  he  is  called  "  god  of 
gods"  and  "good  creator";  he  was  served  by  the  rex  sacrorum, 
who  was  the  first  in  priestly  dignity.  He  may  thus  have  been  a 
chief  god  in  the  oldest  Latin  scheme.2  Yet  he  seems  never  to  have 
come  to  stand  for  anything  intellectually  or  morally  high  except  in 
late  philosophical  thought.    Though  the  guardian  of  public  as  well 

1  So  written  in  good  manuscripts.  The  "piter"  probably  denotes  fatherly  protec- 
tion, though  it  may  have  meant  originally  physical  paternity.  On  this  point  cf.  W.  R. 
Smith.  Religion  of  the  Semites,  lecture  ii,  and  the  various  stories  of  the  birth  of  Jupi- 
ter's children. 

2  On  the  significance  of  the  doublefaced  Janus  (Janus  Geminus)  and  of  the 
ancient  usage  of  opening  the  gates  of  his  temple  in  time  of  war  and  closing  them  in 
time  of  peace,  see  article  "  Janus  "  in  Roscher's  Lexikon,  col.  iS  ff. 


350     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

as  private  houses,  he  was  not  the  patron  of  the  city.  He  remained 
in  the  cult  a  sort  of  family  and  clan  god,  and  represented  only  the 
ideas  of  a  primitive  mode  of  life,  the  great  role  being  assigned  to 
the  sky-god.1 

800.  To  judge  from  the  old  rituals  Mars  was  in  the  earliest  time 
of  which  there  is  any  record  a  god  of  vegetation.  The  Arval 
Brothers,  who  were  charged  with  the  care  of  crops,  addressed  their 
petitions  to  him,  and  it  was  to  him  that  the  Roman  husbandman 
prayed  for  a  blessing  on  his  labors.2  What  may  have  been  his  still 
earlier  character  we  have  no  means  of  determining  with  certainty. 
The  view  that  he  was  originally  a  god  of  the  fructifying  sunlight 3 
seems  to  rest  mainly  on  a  precarious  etymology,  the  derivation  of 
his  name  from  a  stem  mar  meaning  '  to  shine ' ;  but  it  does  not 
appear  that  ancient  peoples  attributed  the  growth  of  crops  to  the 
sun.4  Analogy  would  rather  lead  us  to  regard  him  as  an  old  local 
deity,  naturally  connected  with  vegetation.  However  this  may  be, 
the  importance  of  agriculture  for  the  life  of  the  community  raised 
him  to  a  position  of  eminence,  his  priestly  college,  the  Salian  (tradi- 
tionally referred  to  Numa),  was  one  of  the  greatest,  he  was  con- 
nected with  various  departments  of  life,  and  for  the  warlike  Romans 
he  naturally  became  the  patron  of  war.  The  cult  of  the  old  war- 
goddess  Bellona  maintained  itself,  but  she  never  attained  the  high- 
est rank ;  she  is  not  the  equal  of  Mars,  with  whom  in  the  later 
constructions  she  was  brought  into  connection.  In  the  Hellenizing 
period  he  was  identified  with  Ares.5 

801.  The  name  Saturn  is  generally  connected  with  the  stem  sa 
(sero,  satum,  sata\  to  sow,  and  he  is  accordingly  regarded  as 
an  agricultural  deity,  the  special  patron  of  agricultural  work. 
Whether  or  how  he  differed  originally  from  Mars  is  not  clear  — 
perhaps  in  original  differentiation  of  functions,  he  being  attached  to 
the  work  of  sowing,  Mars  to  vegetation  in  general ;   or  perhaps 

1  With  his  function  as  door-god  compare  the  functions  of  other  Roman  door-gods, 
of  Vesta,  and  of  Hindu  and  other  house-deities. 

-  Varro,  De  Lingua  Latina,  v,  85  ;  Cato,  De  Agri  Cultiira,  141. 

3  So  Roscher  and  others.  4  cf.  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  p.  35. 

5  The  cult  of  Mars  was  widely  diffused  in  Italy  and,  later,  elsewhere.  His  original 
seat  is  uncertain.    lie  was,  perhaps,  the  tribal  god  of  a  conquering  people. 


GODS  3  5  i 

they  were  two  similar  deities  belonging  originally  to  different 
regions,  and  differentiated  when  brought  together  in  the  same  sys- 
tem. Information  on  this  point  is  lacking.  That  Saturn  was  an 
ancient  Latin  god  is  probable  from  the  fact  that  he  was  traditionally 
said  to  be  an  old  king  of  Latium.  Of  his  earliest  cult  in  Rome 
little  is  known.  The  feast  that  bears  his  name,  the  Saturnalia  (held 
on  December  1 7  and  some  following  days),  was  a  time  of  popular 
festivity,  when  social  distinctions  were  laid  aside  (slaves  were  on 
an  equality  with  masters).  Similar  festivals  are  found  elsewhere.1 
Midwinter,  when  the  work  of  gathering  in  the  harvest  was  over, 
was  a  natural  time  for  festivities.'2  Saturn,  or  the  figure  from  which 
he  arose,  may  have  presided  over  this  season  originally,  or  he  may 
have  been  gradually  connected  with  an  old  ceremony.  The  process 
of  Hellenizing  him  began  early.  He  was  identified  with  Kronos, 
made  the  father  of  Jupiter  and  the  head  of  a  pre-Jovian  divine 
dynasty,  and,  in  accordance  with  the  tendency  to  regard  the  former 
days  as  better  than  the  present,  the  Saturnia  regno,  became  the 
golden  age  of  the  past.3  Apart  from  this  he  seems  to  have  had  no 
ethical  significance. 

802.  In  the  case  of  certain  deities,  as  Volcanus,  Neptunus,  Mer- 
curius,  Sancus,  a  pronounced  Roman  development  cannot  be  traced, 
partly  because  of  the  lack  of  full  data,  partly,  in  the  case  of  Volcan, 
Neptune,  and  Mercury,  because  of  an  early  and  complete  identifi- 
cation with  the  Greek  gods  Hephaistos,  Poseidon,  and  Hermes. 

803.  The  Roman  female  deities*  are  far  less  developed  than  the 
Greek  —  their  functions  are  simple,  their  mythological  interest 
small.  The  members  of  the  group  representing  the  productive 
power  of  the  earth  —  Bona  Dea,  Dea  Dia,  Libera,  Fauna,  Ceres, 
Proserpina,5  and  others  —  were  not  worked  up  by  the  Romans  into 
great  personalities. 

804.  Juno,  an  independent  deity,  originally  not  the  wife  of  Ju- 
piter, is,  in  the  developed  cult,  the  special  patron  of  the  maternal 

1  Cf.  also  the  Ancillarum  Feriae  (July  7).  2  See  above.  §  217  ft". 

3  Vergil,  F.clogucs,  iv,  6.    Cf.  above,  §  76S,  note  (Kronos). 

4  Aust,  Religion  der  Romer\  Farnell,  Cults  "/tin-  Greek  States]  Fowler,  Roman 
Festivals ;  articles  in  Roscher's  Lexikon. 

6  She  appears  to  have  been  a  Greek  deity  adopted  by  the  Romans. 


352     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

side  of  the  life  of  women,  and,  as  such,  is  a  great  domestic  power, 
the  embodiment  of  a  large  part  of  family  life.  It  was  probably  as 
great  sky-goddess  that  she  attained  this  position  —  the  chief  female 
deity  is  naturally  the  protector  of  women.  The  name  came  to  desig- 
nate the  woman's  personality  as  childbearer,  and  more  generally  her 
inner  essence  or  self,  as  "  genius  "  came  to  designate  the  male 
essence.1  Whether  this  usage  was  simply  an  extension  of  the  idea 
of  '  protectress '  to  that  of  *  self,'  an  identification  of  woman  with 
her  specific  function  in  the  family,  or  rested  on  some  older  concep- 
tion, is  not  clear.  However  this  may  be,  she  became  a  great 
goddess,  in  the  later  construction  the  wife  of  Jupiter,  and  was 
identified  with  Hera,  to  whom  in  fact  she  is  nearly  related  in 
function  and  character.  Though  her  name  appears  to  contain  the 
same  stem  (tu)  as  'Jupiter,'  and  her  epithet  '  Lucina '  the  stem 
luc,  '  to  shine,'  there  is  no  proof  that  she  was,  in  early  times,  re- 
garded as  a  light-deity,  or  particularly  as  moon-goddess.  She  was 
sky-goddess,  but  not,  for  that  reason,  necessarily  light-goddess. 

805.  The  importance  attached  by  the  Romans  to  the  family  life 
is  expressed  in  the  cult  of  Vesta,  the  guardian  of  the  hearth  as  the 
center  of  that  life.2  The  Penates,  however,  the  divine  protectors 
of  the  household,  were  no  less  important  in  the  family  cult  than  she. 
The  state  also  had  its  Vesta  and  its  Penates.  To  this  character  of 
sacredness  stamped  on  the  life  of  the  private  family  and  the 
larger  family,  the  state,  ethical  significance  and  influence  must 
doubtless  be  ascribed. 

806.  Diana  appears  to  have  originated  in  the  time  when  life  was 
spent  largely  in  forests,  and  trees  were  a  special  object  of  worship  ; 
she  was  in  historical  times  connected  with  groves.3  Her  cult  was 
widely  diffused  in  Italy,  and  she  became  (perhaps  because  she  em- 
bodied the  common  feature  of  the  old  life)  the  representative  of 
Italian  unity.  As  great  female  deity  she  was  the  helper  of  women 
in  childbirth.    Her  name  is  based  on  the  stem  di,  'to  shine,' 4  which 

1  See  above,  §  43. 

2  Compare  the  Greek  Hestia  and  the  Hindu  house-goddess  (Hopkins,  Religions 
of  India,  pp.  374,  530) . 

3  On  the  Arician  Diana  see  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  i,  230  f. 

4  Or,  better,  from  deid. 


GODS  353 

appears  in  '  Jupiter  '  and  '  Juno  ' ;  but  she  is  not  a  sky-goddess  — 
the  "  shining  "  in  her  case  is  that  of  trees  and  plants,  the  green 
color  that  gleams  in  the  light,  so  that  the  grove  is  called  lucus,  the 
'shining  mass.'1  Diana  was  soon  identified  with  Artemis,  and 
was  endowed  with  her  attributes. 

807.  Another  Italian  goddess,  Minerva,  stood,  probably,  in  the 
earlier  time  for  the  simpler  arts  of  a  simple  community  —  she  was  the 
patroness  of  manual  work  and  of  the  healing  art.  The  expression 
omnis  Minervae  homo,  descriptive  of  a  man  capable  in  his  line  of 
work,  almost  reduces  her  to  an  abstract  idea.  The  name  (as  the 
older  form,  Menerva,  more  clearly  indicates)  is  based  on  the  stem 
man  (found  in  Latin  mens),  and  appears  to  mean  !  endowed  with 
mind '  (or,  '  spirit '),  though  exactly  what  was  the  range  of  this 
conception  in  the  earliest  times  is  not  clear.2  Later  her  function  was 
extended  to  embrace  intellectual  capacity,  but  it  was  not  until  her 
identification  with  Athene  (not  later  than  the  third  century  B.C.) 
that  she  attained  her  full  cultic  significance.3 

808.  Venus,  though  an  old  Italian  deity  (as  her  name  and  her 
ancient  temples  show),  was  so  early  Hellenized  that  her  proper 
native  development  was  cut  short.  The  fact  that  she  was  in  early 
times  the  patroness  of  gardens  4  suggests  that  she  was  originally  a 
deity  of  the  productive  field ;  probably  she  belonged  in  the  group 
of  goddesses  (Libera,  Bona  Dea,  and  others) 5  who  presided  over  fer- 
tility. It  would  seem  that  every  region  in  Italy  had  such  a  numen 
loci  (naturally  mainly  agricultural).  It  is  not  clear  to  what  particular 
spot  Venus  was  originally  attached,6  or  how  she  came  to  be  revered 
over  a  wide  region.  Under  ordinary  Italian  conditions  she  might 
have  become  a  deity  like  Ceres.    But  in  Sicily,  at  Mount  Eryx, 


1  The  prevailing  view  is  that  the  grove  is  an  opened  place  into  which  light  enters, 
and  it  is  thus  distinguished  from  the  dark  and  gloomy  forest.  The  verbs  uitar, 
nitcsccrc,  virerc,  are  used  by  Ovid  and  other  writers  to  describe  this  gleaming  of 
leaves,  plants,  trees,  groves,  and  of  the  earth. 

2  An  early  divine  name  expressive  of  intellectual  power  is  not  probable. 

3  On  her  origin  cf.  Wissowa,  Religion  </<•>■  Rbmer,  p.  203  ff. 

4  Varro,  De  Re  Rustica,  i,  1.  5  See  above,  §  803. 

6  In  favor  of  Ardea,  twenty  miles  south  of  Rome,  as  her  original  seat,  cf.  Wis- 
sowa, Religion  der  Rbmer,  p.  235.    - 


354     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

according  to  tradition,   her  cult  came  into  contact  with  that  of 
Aphrodite,  whose  qualities  she  soon  assumed.1 

809.  In  the  third  century  B.C.  the  cult  of  the  Sicilian  Venus 
(Venus  Erycina)  was  brought  to  Rome  by  direction  of  the  Sibylline 
Books,  and  from  this  time  onward  her  advance  to  prominence  was 
continuous.  As  a  great  goddess  she  became  (like  Ishtar  and 
Aphrodite)  in  a  warlike  community  the  patron  of  war  (Venus 
Victrix).  When  the  ^Eneas  myth  was  adopted  in  Rome  she  took 
the  place  of  Aphrodite  as  mother  of  that  hero  (who  became  the 
founder  of  the  Roman  state),  and  was  honored  by  Julius  Caesar 
and  others  as  Venus  Genetrix.  The  old  Roman  moral  feeling 
appears  in  the  dedication  of  a  temple  (114  B.C.)  to  Venus  Verti- 
cordia  as  atonement  for  the  unchastity  of  three  Vestals.2  In  gen- 
eral the  later  functions  and  cult  of  Venus  were  reproductions  or 
imitations  of  those  of  Aphrodite.  Such  a  divine  figure,  it  seems, 
the  Romans  would  never  have  developed  out  of  their  own  resources. 

810.  The  general  characteristics  of  the  great  ancient  national 
religions  are  indicated  in  the  preceding  descriptions.  In  the  sacri- 
ficial cult  and  the  general  apparatus  of  worship  there  is  no  im- 
portant difference  between  them,  but  they  differ  notably  among 
themselves  in  the  construction  of  the  divine  world.  The  simplest 
theistic  system  is  the  Chinese,  which  regards  the  world  as  order 
controlled  by  Heaven.  The  western  cults  fall  into  two  divisions, 
the  Egypto-Semitic  and  the  Indo-European.  The  Egyptian  and  the 
Semitic,  though  they  differ  in  collateral  points  (divinization  of  kings, 
idea  of  the  future  life),  agree  in  lacking  a  true  pantheon.  On  the 
other  hand,  notwithstanding  resemblances  between  the  Hebrew  and 


1  Her  identification  with  the  Greek  goddess  was  perhaps  furthered  by  a  supposed 
relation  between  her  name  and  the  noun  vemtstas,  '  grace,  beauty,'  the  special  qual- 
ity of  Aphrodite.  If  that  was  the  original  sense  of  '  Venus,'  it  could  hardly  have 
indicated  an  aesthetic  perception  of  nature  (Wissowa,  op.  cit.)  ;  such  a  designation 
would  be  foreign  to  early  ways  of  naming  deities.  Whether  the  stem  van  might 
mean  '  general  excellence '  (here  agricultural)  is  uncertain  ;  on  the  Greek  epithets 
'Kallisto,'  rKalliste,'  and  so  forth,  cf.  Gruppe,  Gricchische  Mythologie,  p.  1270  f.  The 
name  '  Venus,'  if  connected  with  the  root  of  venerari,  might  mean  simply  '  a  revered 
object,'  a  deity;  cf.  Bona  Dea  and  Ceres  (creator). 

2  Roscher's  Lexikon,  s.v.  "  Fortuna,"  col.  15 18  ;  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  p.  68.  On 
licentious  cults  of  Venus  cf.  J.  Rosenbaum,  Geschichte  der  Lustsenche  im  Alterttane. 


GODS  355 

the  Persian,  the  difference  between  the  Semitic  group  and  the  Indo- 
European  is  well-defined.  This  difference  may  be  indicated  by 
pointing  out  certain  peculiarities  of  the  Semitic  thcistic  system. 

811.  Features  of  Semitic  theism,  i.  Paucity  of  departmental 
gods  and  absence  of  highly  specialized  gods.  Of  this  latter  class, 
so  prominent  in  Greece  and  Rome,  there  is  no  clear  trace  in  Semitic 
cults.1  Departmental  deities  are  not  found  in  Arabia,  Canaan  (in- 
cluding Israel  and  Phoenicia),  and  Syria.  The  Hebrew  Yahweh 
obviously  controls  all  departments  of  nature  and  life.  The  Phoe- 
nician Eshmun  (a  name  of  uncertain  meaning)  was  identified  by 
the  Greeks  with  their  Asklepios  as  god  of  healing,  but  no  special 
function  of  this  sort  is  attributed  to  him  in  Semitic  records.  As 
he  was  somehow  connected  with  the  Kabiri,  the  "  great  gods," 
it  is  probable  that  he  was  a  local  divinity  credited  with  general 
powers.2  There  is  more  ground  for  recognizing  real  departmental 
gods  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  though  even  there  the  evidence  is 
not  quite  satisfactory.  The  great  gods,  Ea,  Bel,  Sin,  Shamash, 
Marduk,  Ishtar,  Ashur,  preside  over  all  human  interests.  Nabu 
stands  for  agriculture  as  well  as  for  wisdom,  and  Ea  for  wisdom  as 
well  as  for  the  great  deep.  Nergal  is  not  the  only  god  of  war. 
Perhaps  the  distinctest  case  of  specialization  is  Ramman  (Ninib, 
Adad),  the  storm-god3:  the  "thunderbolts  of  Im  [Ramman]  "  are 
mentioned  in  "The  War  of  the  Seven  Evil  Spirits";  yet  Shamash 
stands  with  him  against  the  storm-spirits.  In  general  it  appears 
that  the  recognition  of  special  departments  for  gods  is  inchoate  and 
feeble  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria.  There  is  a  separate  deity  for  the 
Underworld,  sometimes  a  goddess,  sometimes  a  god,  but  they  are 
vague  figures.4  The  connection  of  certain  gods  with  certain  stars 
was  a  late  construction,  and  seems  to  have  had  no  significance 
for  worship  except  a  general  deanthropomorphizing  tendency. 

1  See  above,  §  671. 

2  Articles  in  Roscher,  Lexikon,  and  in  Orientalische  Studien  Noldeke  gewidmet. 

;!  Inscriptions  of  Rammannirari  and  Nebuchadrezzar  (Birs  Nimrud)  ;  Jastrow, 
Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  Index,  s.-v. :  id..  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and 
Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  Index,  s.v.  .  I  dad. 

4  There  is  no  separate  god  of  Sheol  in  the  Old  Testament.  On  Eve  as  such  a 
deity  see  Lidzbarski,  Ephcmcris,  i,  26;  cf.  Cook,  North  Semitic  Inscriptions^  135. 


.356     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

812.  2.  There  is  no  trace  of  a  cult  of  heroes  in  the  Semitic 
area.  The  Babylonian  Etana,  Gilgamesh,  and  Nimrod  (an  enigmat- 
ical figure),  and  the  Old  Testament  Nephilim  do  not  receive  wor- 
ship.1 The  dead  were  consulted,  but  there  was  no  cult  of  the 
great  ancestors.2  The  divinization  of  Babylonian  kings,  referred  to 
above,3  seems  not  to  have  carried  worship  with  it. 

813.  3.  The  Semitic  material  of  malefic  spirits,  while  in  general 
the  same  as  that  found  elsewhere  in  the  world,  has  a  couple  of 
special  features.  In  Babylonia  there  was  a  sort  of  pandemonium, 
a  certain  organization  of  demons,4  with  proper  names  for  some 
classes ;  demons  usually  have  not  proper  names,  but  may  receive 
such  names  when  they  come  into  specially  definite  relations  with 
men.  The  demon  Lilit  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament,5  is  prob- 
ably Babylonian.  The  two  great  Hebrew  hostile  beings,  Satan 
and  Azazel,  are  rather  gods  than  demons.6  They  were  both  most 
highly  developed  under  Persian  influence,  and  in  the  Book  of  Enoch 
take  on  the  character  and  role  of  Angro  Mainyu.  Their  history 
exhibits,  however,  the  disposition  of  the  later  Jews  to  organize  the 
realm  of  supernatural  evil ;  about  the  first  century  b.c.  the  serpent- 
god  of  Genesis  iii  was  identified  with  Satan.7 

The  Greek  malefic  beings,  Ker,  Harpy,  Fury,  Gorgon,  Sphinx, 
and  the  like,  appear  to  have  been  developed  out  of  ghosts 8  — 
whether  or  not  this  is  true  of  the  Babylonian  demons  the  known 
material  does  not  enable  us  to  say.  Organization  of-  such  beings 
was  carried  out  fully  by  the  Persians,  but  not  by  any  other  Indo- 
European  people  and  not  by  the  Chinese. 

1  Gen.  vi,  4,  cf.  Ezek.  xxxii,  27  ;  Philo  of  Byblos ;  Harper,  Assyrian  and  Babylo- 
nian Literature. 

2  Isa.  lxiii,  16  ("  God  is  our  father,  though  Abraham  and  Israel  do  not  acknowl- 
edge us  ")  is  regarded  by  some  commentators  as  pointing  to  ancestor-worship.  It 
seems,  however,  to  be  nothing  more  than  the  complaint  of  persons  who  were  dis- 
owned by  the  community  or  by  the  leaders.  3  §  34 1  ff . 

4  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  168  :  "  a  pantheon  of  demons." 

5  Isa.  xxxiv,  14. 

6  Satan  is  one  of  the  Elohim-beings,  old  gods  subordinated  to  Yahweh,  and  Azazel, 
if  his  name  contains  the  divine  title  el,  must  be  put  into  this  class. 

"  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  ii,  24. 

8  Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  chap.  v.  On  Hindu 
demons  see  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  Index,  s.v.  Devils. 


GODS  357 

814.  4.  On  abstract  gods  and  phallic  cults  see  the  discussions  of 
these  points  above.1 

815.  5.  Semitic  theistic  myths  differ  from  Indo-European  in  that 
they  are  almost  wholly  without  the  element  of  personal  adventures 
of  gods.2  Since  all  known  genuine  Semitic  myths  seem  to  have 
their  original  home  in  Babylonia,  and  Babylonian  mythical  material 
bears  marks  of  Sumerian  influence,  the  question  has  been  raised 
whether  we  have  any  genuinely  Semitic  mythical  biographies  of 
gods.  However  this  question  may  be  answered,  it  remains  true  that 
the  Semites  show  little  disposition  to  work  out  this  line  of  thought. 

816.  Of  the  origin  of  these  peculiarities  of  the  Semitic  theistic 
system,  as  of  all  such  origins,  it  is  impossible  to  give  any  satisfac- 
tory explanation.  Geographical  and  climatic  conditions  have  been 
appealed  to  :  the  Semitic  area  was  small  and  isolated  —  the  Semites 
were  shut  off  by  oceans,  mountains,  and  rivers  from  the  rest  of  the 
world,  were  disposed  to  migrate  only  within  the  limits  of  their 
area,3  and  long  lived  under  the  monotonous  influence  of  the  desert ; 
thus,  it  is  said,  their  conception  of  the  world  became  objective  and 
limited  —  they  were  clannish,  practical,  unanalytic,  and  unimagina- 
tive. But  the  origin  of  races  is  obscure,  and  the  genius  of  every 
ancient  people  was  formed  and  developed  in  remote  ages  under 
conditions  not  known  to  us.  We  can  do  little  more  than  note  the 
characteristics  visible  in  historical  times. 

817.  Paucity  of  myths  and  the  other  features  mentioned  above 
accord  with  the  later  role  of  Semitic,  especially  Hebrew,  theism  — 
the  tendency  to  conceive  of  the  deity  as  on  the  one  hand  aloof  and 
transcendent,  and  on  the  other  hand  standing  in  close  social  relations 
with  man  as  his  lord  and  protector.  This  proved  to  be  socially  the 
most  effective  idea  of  God,  and  has  been  adopted  by  all  the  great 
nations  of  the  western  world. 

818.  The  contributions  of  the  Indo-European  religions  to  the 
religious    thought    of    the  world   are   indicated   in   the   preceding 

1  §§  698  ff,  398  ff. 

2  See  below,  Chapter  vii.  Here,  again,  Mazdaism  forms  an  exception,  resembling 
the  Semitic  scheme  rather  than  the  Hindu. 

3  A  partial  exception  is  found  in  the  comparatively  late  movement  from  the  south 
of  Arabia  over  into  Africa  (Abessinia,  Ethiopia). 


358     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTi  )R  J '  t )F  RELIGIONS 

sketches.  What  is  to  be  learned  from  the  Chinese  the  future  must 
show.  The  general  history  of  civilization  leads  us  to  expect  a 
gradual  combination  and  fusion  of  all  lines  of  religious  development, 
in  which  every  system  will  contribute  its  best,  and  the  lower  ele- 
ments will  be  discarded.1 

1  On  the  characteristics  of  the  various  great  religions  see  Hegel,  Religionsphi- 
losophie;  Santayana,  Reason  in  Religion  (vol.  iii  of  The  Life  of  Reason)  ;  E.  Caird, 
Evohdion  of  Religion;  R.  B.  Perry,  Approach  to  Philosophy  ;  S.  Johnson,  Oriental 
Religions;  J.  F.  Clarke,  Ten  Great  Religions;  S.  Reinach,  Orpheus.  See  below, 
Chapter  ix. 


CHAPTER  VII 
MYTHS 

819.  Myths  represent  the  savage  and  half-civilized  science  of 
origins,  the  imaginary  construction  of  the  world.  From  the  earliest 
times  men  have  shown  curiosity  respecting  the  origin  of  the  things 
that  lie  about  them.  In  the  presence  of  plains  and  mountains, 
trees  and  rivers,  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  beasts  and  human  beings, 
they  have  felt  the  necessity  of  accounting  for  the  beginning  of  all 
these  objects.1  This  attempt  at  giving  a  natural  history  of  the  world 
is  in  itself  a  scientific  procedure,  but  in  the  earlier  periods  of  hu- 
manity it  naturally  attached  itself  to  the  hypothesis  of  superhuman 
Powers  —  the  production  of  this  variety  of  mysterious  things  ap- 
peared to  demand  capacity  above  that  of  man.  The  science  and 
the  fancy  of  early  man  combined  to  produce  a  great  mass  of  theo- 
ries and  stories  which  to  their  inventors  seemed  to  be  a  satisfactory 
account  of  the  origin  of  all  things. 

820.  Myths  thus  furnish  an  important  contribution  to  the  history 
of  early  opinion,  scientific  and  religious ;  in  the  absence  of  written 
records  they  often  offer  our  only  means  of  information  concerning 
early  thought.  They  describe  the  origin  not  only  of  the  physical 
world  but  also  of  communities  and  social  organizations  and  institu- 
tions. They  have  a  noteworthy  vitality,  lasting  from  the  beginning 
of  human  communal  life  into  periods  of  advanced  civilization  ;  and, 
when  adopted  by  great  religious  organizations  and  interwoven  into 
their  theories  of  salvation,  they  perpetuate  to  civilized  times  the 

1  But  a  certain  substratum  is  usually  assumed,  no  attempt  being  made  to  account 
for  its  existence. 

2  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  chaps,  viii-x  ;  Jastrow,  Study  of  Religion^  [ndex, 
s.w.  Myth,  Mythology;  Lang,  Custom  and  Myth,  and  Myth,  Ritual  and  Religion\ 
articles  "  Mythologie  "  in  La  Grande  Encyclopedic,  and  "Mythology"  in  Encyclo- 
pedia Britannica,    nth  ed. 

359 


360     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

ideas  of  the  crude  period  in  which  they  originated.  In  many  cases 
they  stand  side  by  side,  and  in  sharp  contrast,  with  elevated  moral 
conceptions  of  the  deity,  and  then  have  to  be  harmonized,  usually 
with  a  great  expenditure  of  exegetical  ingenuity,  with  the  higher 
ideas  of  society. 

821.  The  mythopceic  age,  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  term,  em- 
braces the  whole  period  in  which  appeal  is  made,  for  the  explanation 
of  phenomena,  to  other  than  natural  agencies ;  but  it  is  generally 
understood  to  extend  only  up  to  the  time  when,  though  a  general 
Tlivine  Power  is  invoked  for  creation,  this  is  regarded  as  working 
solely  through  the  laws  of  nature.1  And  within  this  period  the 
myth-making  impulse  lasted  longer  in  some  directions  than  in 
others.  In  general,  the  mythical  theories  concerning  the  larger 
processes,  as,  for  example,  the  creation  of  the  world,  received 
no  addition  after  the  establishment  of  a  settled  civilization  ;  but 
after  this  time  even  well-advanced  communities  continued  to  invent 
mythical  accounts  of  the  origin  of  customs,  institutions,  genealo- 
gies, and  similar  facts.  Throughout  the  whole  myth-making  period 
a  progression  may  be  recognized  in  the  character  of  the  myths : 
from  the  earlier  animal  and  human  creators  we  pass  to  the  higher 
anthropomorphic  forms,  the  great  gods ;  there  is  increased  literary 
excellence,  a  molding  and  a  remolding  of  the  old  crude  stories, 
with  a  combination  of  them  into  well-ordered  histories ;  they  are 
constantly  modified  by  the  growing  acquaintance  with  the  laws  of 
nature  and  by  the  higher  intellectual  conceptions  of  the  deity  ;  and 
they  are  more  and  more  infused  with  ethical  significance. 

822.  An  examination  of  myths  all  over  the  world  shows  that 
the  most  of  them,  especially  those  relating  to  creation  and  to  the 
histories  of  the  gods,  originated  at  a  period  when  men  stood  intel- 
lectually and  morally  on  a  very  low  plane.2  The  first  myth-makers 
were  savages,  with  all  the  well-known  characteristics  of  savage 
life.  Having  next  to  no  knowledge  of  natural  law,  and  holding 
to  a  practical  identity  of  nature  among  men,  beasts,  and  physical 

1  Belief  in  miracles,  which  is  found  in  some  higher  religions,  may  here  be  left  out 
of  the  account  as  belonging  in  a  separate  category. 

2  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  chaps,  ii-iv. 


MYTHS  361 

things,  they  had  no  difficulty  in  imagining  all  sorts  of  transforma- 
tions and  creative  procedures.  No  limit  was  conceived  of  for  the 
power  of  beasts  and  men  —  there  was  no  object  in  heaven  or  earth 
which,  according  to  the  current  ideas,  could  not  have  been  pro- 
duced by  some  procedure  which  was  similar  to  the  procedures  of 
ordinary  life.  The  ethical  character  of  the  creators  and  of  the  in- 
troducers of  general  culture  was  that  of  the  communities  that 
imagined  them  ;  naturally  the  stories  were  full  of  ethical  barbarities 
and  violations  of  all  the  moral  rules  recognized  at  a  later  period ; 
and,  as  is  remarked  above,  these  stories  continued  into  civilized 
times,  and  had  to  be  interpreted  by  various  devices. 

823.  One  of  the  most  noteworthy  facts  in  the  history  of  my- 
thology is  the  general  similarity  of  the  myths  that  are  found  all  over 
the  world.  Allowing  for  continuous  moral  and  intellectual  progress 
and  for  local  differences  of  surroundings,  it  may  be  said  that  the 
theories  of  the  production  of  the  earth  and  the  heavenly  bodies,  of 
man  and  other  objects,  of  customs  and  institutions,  show  substan- 
tially the  same  types  everywhere.  The  question  has  been  raised 
whether  this  virtual  identity  is  to  be  explained  by  the  supposition  of 
independent  origination  at  various  points,  or  is  to  be  attributed  to 
a  borrowing  by  one  community  from  another.  The  question  of  the 
migration  of  myths  is  a  part  of  the  larger  question  of  the  migration 
of  culture,  and  is  attended  with  all  the  difficulties  that  attach  to 
this  latter.  It  is  not  possible  at  present  to  give  an  answer  which 
shall  embrace  all  the  phenomena.  Obviously  any  satisfactory  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  must  be  preceded  by  a  thorough  examination 
of  all  particular  myths,  all  social  characteristics,  and  all  geographical 
and  migratory  relations  affecting  the  early  communities ;  and  on 
these  points  there  is  yet  much  to  learn. 

824.  It  is  well  known  that  customs  and  beliefs  have  sometimes 
passed  from  one  tribe  or  nation  to  another,  when  there  has  been 
close  social  intercourse  between  the  two.  It  is  known  also  that 
early  men  were  capable  of  long  journeys  by  land  and  by  water : 
the  migration  legends  of  various  peoples  are  full  of  the  details  of 
such  movements ;  in  comparatively  recent  times  there  have  been 
great  migrations  of  large  bodies  of  people,  as,  for  example,  from 


362     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  Arabian  desert  to  the  north  and  northwest,  and  from  the  central 
Asiatic  steppes  westward  and  eastward ;  and  the  tribes  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean  appear  to  have  traversed  long  distances  in  their 
canoes.  And  when  we  consider  the  great  lapse  of  time,  many 
thousands  of  years,  that  preceded  the  formation  of  the  human 
society  with  which  we  are  acquainted,  it  appears  to  be  impossible 
to  assign  any  limit  to  the  possibility  of  tribal  movements  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  On  the  other  hand,  we  do  not  know  whether, 
or  how  far,  such  migrations  issued  in  social  fusion ;  and  all  the 
well-attested  cases  of  borrowing  of  customs  and  ideas  have  sprung 
from  long-continued  social  union. 

825.  Further,  a  distinction  must  be  made  between  general  re- 
semblances and  minute  agreement  or  complete  identity  ;  there  may 
be  a  similarity  so  great  as  to  force  on  us  the  hypothesis  of  imita- 
tion, and  there  may  be  general  similarities  that  may  be  ascribed  to 
ordinary  human  thought  working  in  different  places  under  similar 
conditions.  In  fact,  the  conditions  of  existence  have  not  varied 
very  greatly  over  the  globe.  There  are  differences  of  climate  and 
soil  and  surface-configuration,  but  everywhere  there  have  been  the 
sky  with  the  heavenly  bodies,  the  sequence  of  day  and  night,  sun- 
shine and  rain,  hunting  and  fishing,  trees,  rivers,  beasts  and  birds, 
and  the  cultivable  soil ;  and  as  man's  problem  was  everywhere  the 
same  —  namely,  how  to  put  himself  into  good  relation  with  his 
surroundings  —  and  as  his  intellectual  equipment  was  everywhere 
substantially  the  same,  it  would  not  be  surprising  if  he  should  fall 
on  similar  methods  of  thought  and  procedure  independently  in  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  world.  It  was  natural  to  early  man  to  think  of  the 
sun  as  a  ball  of  fire  which  had  somehow  been  thrown  up  into  the 
sky,  and  of  the  moon  as  associated  with  the  sun  as  sister  or  wife 
or  husband,  and  of  the  stars  as  children  of  these  two.  For  creative 
agents  early  man  had  to  look  to  the  beings  about  him,  particularly 
to  beasts,  birds,  and  insects.  The  process  of  creation  was  simple 
—  the  story  usually  amounts  merely  to  saying  that  such  and  such 
a  beast  or  other  being  made  this  or  that  object ;  and  there  is  very 
rarely,  if  ever,  a  conception  of  an  absolute  beginning ;  almost 
always  a  reconstruction  of  existing  material  is  assumed. 


MYTHS  363 

826.  Both  explanations  of  the  resemblances  in  myths,  it  thus 
appears,  are  reasonable  in  themselves,  and  every  case  must  be 
considered  separately.  That  a  community  has  borrowed  one  story 
does  not  prove  borrowing  in  the  case  of  any  other  story ;  and  that 
a  people  has  been  a  center  of  distribution  of  certain  myths  does 
not  prove  that  it  was  the  originator  of  all  myths.  These  two  propo- 
sitions appear  to  be  self-evident,  but  they  have  often  been  ignored 
in  discussions  of  the  provenance  of  mythical  material.1 

827.  The  similarities  in  myths  all  over  the  world  extend  over 
the  whole  domain  of  religion.  Myths  may  be  divided  into  those 
which  deal  with  the  creation  of  the  world  and  of  man  (cosmogonic), 
those  which  deal  with  the  origins  of  tribes  and  nations  (ethnogonic), 
those  which  refer  to  the  origin  of  customs  and  institutions  (soci- 
ogonic),  and  those  which  are  based  on  the  forms  and  movements 
of  the  heavenly  bodies,  clouds,  winds,  and  so  forth  (solar,  lunar, 
procellar,  and  so  forth). 

828.  Cosmogonic  myths}  Among  early  tribes  the  creators  are 
very  often  familiar  animals,  such  as  the  coyote,  the  raven,  the  hare 
(North  America),  the  wagtail  (among  the  Ainu),  the  grasshopper 
(among  the  Bushmen)  —  in  general,  whatever  animals  appear  to  the 
men  of  a  particular  tribe  to  show  skill  and  power.  Reference  is  made 
above  to  the  reasons  which  led  early  men  to  pay  such  high  regard 
to  the  lower  animals.3  But  in  more  advanced  savage  communities 
the  creative  function  is  ascribed  to  a  man,  as  among  the  Thompson 
River  Indians  and  in  Southeast  Australia  ;  in  Central  Australia  the 
authors  of  creation  or  of  the  arrangement  of  things  are  beings  who 
are  indifferently  men  or  animals,  but  are  regarded  as  the  ancestors 
of  the  tribes.  In  the  higher  religions  the  creators  are  nature  gods 
and  great  gods,  and  finally  the  one  God  stands  alone  as  creator. 

829.  The  act  of  creation  is  commonly  represented  as  a  process. 
Mud  is  brought  up  from  a  pool,  or  an  island  is  raised  from  the  sea 

1  So  with  the  theory  of  universal  borrowing  from  one  center  advocated  by  Stuckcn 
(Astralmythen),  W'inckler  (Himmels-  und  Weltensbild  der  Babylonier  ah  Grundlage 
der  Weltanschauung  und  Mythologie  alien  Volker),  Jeremias  (Das  Altc  Testament  in: 
Lichte  des  Alien  Orients),  Jensen  (Das  Gilgamesch  Epos),  and  others. 

2  Cf.  article  "Cosmogony  and  Cosmology"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion 
and  Ethics.  3  §  225  ff. 


364     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIOXS 

(the  Maoris,  the  Redmen),  and  these  are  stretched  out  so  as  to 
meet  the  needs  of  men ;  or  a  dragon  or  a  giant  is  cut  to  pieces 
and  the  various  parts  of  the  universe  are  made  from  the  pieces 
(Babylonia,  India,  Scandinavia);  or,  in  still  later  times,  an  unformed 
mass  of  water  is  conceived  of  as  the  original  state  out  of  which  all 
things  are  fashioned  (Babylonians,  Hebrews,  Hindus,  Greeks) ; 
or  the  universe  issues  from  an  egg  (the  origin  of  the  egg  being 
left  unexplained),1  or  the  earth  is  represented  as  the  mother  of  all 
things  (California).  Elaborate  cosmogonies  are  found  in  New 
Zealand  (the  Maoris),  in  North  America  (the  Pawnees,  the  Lenape, 
and  so  forth),  in  Australia,  and  elsewhere.  An  interesting  example 
is  the  Californian  Achomawi  cosmogony.  In  the  beginning,  accord- 
ing to  this  scheme,  were  only  the  sea  and  the  sky,  and  from  the 
sky  came  down  the  Creator ;  or  a  cloud,  at  first  tiny,  grew  large, 
condensed,  and  became  the  Silver-Gray  Fox,  the  Creator,  and  out 
of  a  fog,  which  in  like  manner  was  condensed,  came  the  Coyote, 
and  these  two  made  the  earth  and  man.2 

830.  In  all  these  cases  the  creation  is  out  of  already  existing 
material 3  and  the  creator  is  really  a  culture-hero  or  transformer,  a 
character  that  clings  to  deities  in  the  most  advanced  religions,  as 
the  Egyptian,  Babylonian,  and  Greek.  The  character  of  these  early 
transformers  and  creators  is  that  of  the  communities  in  which  they 
originate.  Morally  they  represent  both  the  higher  and  the  lower 
sides  of  life,  and  this  is  true  in  all  periods  —  the  Hindu  Indra  is  as 
tricksy  and  unmoral  as  the  North  American  Coyote,  and  the  early 
form  of  Zeus  resembles  these  and  other  savage  figures.4  The  con- 
ceptions of  the  creator  grew  more  and  more  ethically  good,  but  the 
lower  representations  continued  to  exist  side  by  side  with  the  higher.5 

1  (^atapatlia  Brahmana,  xi,  1,  6,  1. 

2  R.  B.  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  335  f. 

3  Spiegel  {Eranische  Alterihumskunde,  ii,  144)  ascribes  to  the  Eranians  the  con- 
ception of  creation  out  of  nothing.  See  also  the  Hawaiian  representation  of  the  origin 
of  all  things  from  the  primeval  void,  and  the  orderly  sequence  of  the  various  forms 
of  life.  4  A.  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  chap,  vi  ff. 

5  See,  for  example,  the  two  accounts  of  creation  in  the  Book  of  Genesis.  In 
the  earlier  account  (chap,  ii)  the  procedure  of  Yahweh  is  mechanical,  and  things  do 
not  turn  out  as  he  intended  ;  in  the  later  account  (chap,  i)  there  is  no  mention  of  a 
process  —  it  is  the  divine  word  that  calls  the  world  into  being. 


MYTHS  365 

831.  It  is  not  altogether  strange  that  the  two  sorts  of  creative 
Powers  should  be  early  thought  of  as  mutually  antagonistic.  The 
Maidu  bad  creator  is  constantly  opposing  and  bringing  to  naught 
the  work  of  his  good  rival,  and  their  collision  produces  the  actual 
state  of  things  on  the  earth.1  It  is  probably  by  way  of  explanation 
of  the  evil  in  the  world  that  in  this  myth  the  bad  Coyote  finally 
overcomes  his  rival.  The  resemblance  of  this  scheme  to  the  Maz- 
dean  dualism,  except  in  the  outcome,  is  obvious.  For  a  full  account 
of  these  systems  we  must  await  further  information  ;  but  at  present 
there  is  no  ground  for  holding  that  the  similarity  is  due  to  borrowing. 

832.  In  various  early  cosmogonies  the  representation  is  found 
of  an  earlier  race  or  an  early  world  that  had  been  destroyed,  some- 
times by  a  flood  (Babylonia,  India,  Greece,  Polynesia,  North 
America,  South  America),  sometimes  in  other  ways.2  Flood  stories 
probably  arise  from  local  inundations,  and  may  therefore  have  been 
constructed  independently  in  various  regions.  In  some  cases  the 
general  conditions  favor  the  supposition  of  distribution  from  one 
point :  it  seems  probable,  for  example,  that  the  Babylonian  flood 
story  was  adopted  by  the  Canaanites  and  from  them  by  the 
Hebrews  (the  supposition  of  common  descent  from  an  original 
Semitic  myth  is  made  improbable  by  the  closeness  of  resemblance 
between  the  Babylonian  and  Hebrew  forms)  ;  it  may  have  passed 
to  India,  but  the  Hindu  story  may  be  accounted  for  from  local 
conditions.  But  we  know  of  no  such  intercourse  between  the 
Americas,  Polynesia,  and  Western  Asia,  as  would  suggest  a  mi- 
gration of  the  myth  from  the  latter  to  the  two  former,  though  this 
is  conceivable. 

833.  The  origin  of  man  is  included  in  that  of  the  world.  He  is 
made  from  clay  or  wooden  figures  or  stones,  or,  as  in  Australia, 
out  of  a  shapeless  mass.  The  conception  found  in  various  parts  of 
the  world,  that  the  present  race  of  men  was  preceded  by  another, 
appears  to  be  due  sometimes  to  a  real,  though  often  confused, 
tradition  of  an  earlier  population,  sometimes  to  a  vague  conception 

1  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  263. 

2  See  R.  Andree,  Die  Flutsagcn  ;  article  M  Flood"  in  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible. 


$66     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

of  the  conflict  and  incompleteness  in  the  world.  Traditions  of 
predecessors  are  found  in  various  parts  of  the  world.  In  North 
America  —  as,  for  example,  among  the  Navahos  —  a  part  of  the 
early  history  is  the  conflict  with  certain  mighty  and  evil  beings  who 
made  good  life  impossible  —  a  semidualistic  scheme.1  This  view 
comes  from  the  general  disposition  to  conceive  of  the  past  as  the 
time  of  mightier  agencies,  good  and  bad,  than  now  exist. 

834.  A  not  uncommon  representation  is  that  man  was  originally 
not  mortal,  or  that  it  was  a  question  whether  or  not  he  should  be 
mortal  (death  being  generally  regarded  by  early  man  as  an  abnor- 
mal event,  produced  by  supernatural  agency).  In  such  cases 
mortality  is  brought  about  by  an  accident  or  an  error :  among 
the  Maoris  by  a  mistake  of  the  hero  Maui ; 2  among  the  Hebrews 
by  the  disobedience  of  the  first  man,  or  by  his  failure  to  eat  of 
the  tree  of  life ;  in  South  Africa  by  the  accident  that  the  mes- 
senger who  was  to  announce  immortality  was  outrun  by  one  who 
announced  mortality.3 

835.  The  belief  that  the  earliest  men  were  longer-lived  and  of 
larger  stature  than  their  successors  is  found  among  certain  peoples.4 
Of  the  origin  of  this  belief  in  ancient  times  we  have  no  accounts. 
It  may  have  been  suggested  by  various  objects  supposed  to  be 
remains  of  men,  or  it  may  have  been  due  simply  to  a  tendency  to 
conceive  of  the  beginners  of  human  society  as  superior  beings 
(dedivinized  gods).  The  Hebrew  tradition  ascribed  great  age  to 
Abraham,  Isaac,  Jacob,  Joseph,  and  Moses,  on  a  generally  descend- 
ing scale ;  the  longevity  of  the  antediluvians  is  perhaps  a  specu- 
lative continuation  of  the  series  back  of  Abraham  on  an  ascending 
scale,  though  special  mythical  traits  here  come  in. 

Connected  with  the  general  belief  in  the  superiority  of  early 
conditions  of  life  is  the  belief  in  a  primitive  earthly  paradise ;  the 
history  of  this  conception  is  not  clear,  but  in  some  cases  the  para- 
dise appears  to  have  been  the  delightful  abode  of  a  deity,  into 

1  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  37  ;  cf.  Dorsey,  The  Skidi  Pawnee,  p.  14  ff. 

2  Grey,  Polynesian  Mythology,  p.  57  f. ;  cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Ctritnre,  i,  335. 

3  Callaway,  The  Amazidn,  pp.  3,  4,  100,  138. 

4  Gen.  v ;  vi,  4  ;  Herodotus,  iii,  23  ;  Roscher,  Lexikon,  s.v.  Giganten  ;  cf.  Tylor, 
op.  cit.,  i,  385  ff. ;  Brinton,  American  Hero-Myths,  p.  SS. 


MYTHS  367 

which  human  beings  were  for  various  reasons  admitted,  or  the 
primeval  fair  and  happy  earth.1 

836.  The  belief  that  the  world  or  the  existing  order  is  to  be 
destroyed  appears  to  be  connected  with  the  conception  of  history 
as  involving  a  cycle  of  ages,  and  the  theory  of  ages  may  have  arisen 
from  the  tradition  or  the  knowledge  of  social  and  political  revolu- 
tions, the  rise  of  each  new  phase  of  civilization  involving  the  de- 
struction of  its  predecessor.  Traditions  of  past  cataclysms  may 
have  helped  toward  the  formulation  of  an  expectation  of  coming 
destruction.  This  expectation,  generalized  under  the  influence  of 
belief  in  a  final  judgment  of  men  by  God,  would  lead  to  the  an- 
nouncement of  a  final  destruction  of  the  present  world.  This  de- 
struction, which  ushers  in  a  new  age,  is  accomplished  in  various 
ways,  sometimes  by  water,  wind,  or  fire,2  sometimes  by  supernatural 
enemies.3  The  Hindu  and  the  Persian  schemes  of  successive  ages 
are  relatively  late  theological  constructions,  but  they  are  based  on 
the  older  idea  that  present  things  must  have  an  end.4  The  Navaho 
series  of  five  worlds  represents,  apparently,  nothing  but  traditions 
of  social  changes,  interspersed  with  minor  aetiologic  myths.5 

837.  Many  other  cosmogonic  details,  common  to  various  peoples, 
might  be  added.  Transformation  from  human  to  animal  or  mineral 
forms  and  the  reverse  are  to  be  found,  as  we  have  seen,  every- 
where. The  slaying  of  dragons  by  gods  or  heroes  is  often  con- 
nected with  creation,  but  belongs  sometimes  in  the  category  of 
cultural  or  nature  myths.    Abnormal  forms  of  birth  and  generation 

1  Brinton,  Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples,  p.  126  f. ;  Maspero,  Dawn,  p.  158  ;  Gen. 
ii,  iii ;  Avesta,  Vendidad,  Fargard  ii ;  Spiegel,  Eranische  Altcrthumskintde,  i,  463  ff. ; 
Windischmann,  Zoroastrische  Studien,  p.  19  ff. ;  Hopkins,  in  Journal  of  the  American 
Oriental  Society  (September,  1910),  pp.  362,  366  ;  article  "  Hesperiden  "  in  Roscher's 
Lexikon;  commentaries  of  Kalisch,  Dillmann,  Driver,  Skinner,  and  others  on  Gen. 
ii,  iii;  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  s.v.  Paradise;  Delitzsch,  Wo  lag  das  Parodies?  On 
the  character  of  the  abode  of  the  Babylonian  1'arnapishtim  see  Jastrow,  Religion  of 
Babylonia  and  Assyria,  pp.  488,  496. 

2  2  Pet.  iii,  7,  contrast  with  the  old  destruction  by  water ;  Hindu  eschatology. 

3  The  Norse  myth  of  "  the  twilight  of  the  gods  "  has  perhaps  been  colored,  in  its 
latest  form,  by  Christian  eschatology. 

4  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  42 1  ;  Spiegel,  Eranische  Alterthumskunde,  ii,  161  ; 
H.  Warren,  Buddhism  in  Translations,  p.  315  ff. 

5  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  63  ff. 


368     INTRODUCTION'  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

may  be  sometimes  products  of  savage  fancy,  or  they  may  be  at- 
tempts to  set  forth  the  mysterious  or  the  supernatural  in  certain 
beings,  or  they  may  be  nature  myths :  in  various  mythologies  a 
god  or  a  hero  is  born  from  the  side  or  the  thigh  or  the  head  of 
the  mother  or  the  father ;  fecundation  by  other  means  than  sexual 
union  appears  in  North  America,  Egypt,  Greece,  and  generally  in 
savage  tribes.1  The  representation  of  the  primeval  parents,  Heaven 
and  Earth,  as  having  been  originally  united  in  a  close  embrace 
and  then  separated,  Heaven  being  lifted  up  and  Earth  remaining 
below,  is  so  remarkable  that  it  might  be  doubted  whether  it  arose 
independently  in  different  places ;  yet,  as  it  is  found  in  New  Zea- 
land,2 in  Egypt,3  in  India,4  among  the  Masai  of  Eastern  Central 
Africa,5  and  as  the  supposition  of  borrowing  for  these  widely  sep- 
arated communities  would  be  difficult  (except,  perhaps,  as  between 
Egypt  and  the  Masai  land),  it  is  simpler  to  regard  the  myth  as  a 
natural  effort  of  early  science.6  It  need  hardly  be  added  that  with 
all  the  similarities  in  the  various  cosmogonic  systems  the  diversities 
among  different  peoples  are  as  numerous  as  the  differences  of  sur- 
roundings and  character. 

838.  Among  most  early  communities  the  great  figures  of  the 
past  (creations  of  imagination)  to  whom  are  ascribed  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  arts  of  life  and  the  general  betterment  of  society  are 
regarded  as  demigods,  descended  from  parents  one  of  whom  is 
divine  and  the  other  human ;  it  is  sometimes  the  father,  some- 
times the  mother,  that  is  divine.7  This  conception  is  a  simple  and 
natural  explanation  of  the  supposed  extraordinary  powers  of  the 
personages  in  question.  A  more  refined  conception  represents 
man  as  receiving  life  from  the  breath  of  God,8  whence  easily 
comes  the  idea  that  man  is  the  child  of  God  and  has  in  him 
a  spark  of  divinity. 

1  Hartland,  Primitive  Paternity,  chap.  i.        2  Grey,  Polynesian  Mythology,  chap.  i. 
3  Maspero,  Dawn,  p.  128  f.  4  Aitareya  Bra/unana,  iv,  27. 

5  Hollis,  The  Masai,  p.  279  ;  cf.  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  19S. 

6  Gruppe,  Griechische  Cnlte  und  Mythcn.  Cf.  the  birth-myth  in  Matthews,  Navaho 
Legends,  p.  71. 

7  So  Heracles,  Achilles,  ^Eneas,  and  the  heroes  mentioned  in  Gen.  vi,  4. 

8  Gen.  ii,  7. 


MYTHS  369 

839.  EtJuiogonic  myths.  Early  science  has  to  account  not  only 
for  the  origin  of  the  world  and  the  human  race,  but  also  for  the 
origin  of  particular  tribes  and  their  surroundings.  The  area  involved 
is  the  known  world,  which  among  savage  peoples  is  small  in  ex- 
tent but  increases  with  knowledge,  the  general  method  of  account- 
ing for  social  division  remaining,  however,  the  same.  As  a  rule, 
the  center  of  the  distribution  of  mankind  is  the  territory  of  the 
particular  tribe  in  which  the  myth  originates.  There  is  always  the 
conviction,  expressed  or  implied,  that  the  tribe  in  question  is  the 
center  of  the  world  and  the  favorite  of  the  creative  Power ; l  it 
being  established  in  its  place,  the  rest  of  the  world  -is  divided 
among  other  tribes  —  a  conception  that  survives  among  civilized 
peoples  of  antiquity.2 

840.  The  ethnogonic  history  generally  takes  the  form  of  a  gene- 
alogy —  every  tribe  or  other  group  is  derived  from  a  mythical 
ancestor,  who  among  savages  is  frequently  a  beast,  or  half-beast 
half-human,  or  even  in  some  cases  a  rock  or  a  stone.  Familiar 
examples  are  the  genealogical  systems  of  the  Australians,  the 
Maoris  of  New  Zealand,  the  Samoans,  the  American  Indians ;  3 
but  the  conception  appears  to  be  universal.  There  was  indeed  no 
other  natural  way  of  accounting  for  the  origin  of  a  tribe :  as  an 
existing  family  would  reckon  its  beginning  from  the  grandfather, 
so  the  tribe  would  come  from  some  remote  person,  and  so  at  a 
later  time  the  nation,  and  then  finally  the  human  race.  As  there 
were  no  historical  records  of  such  beginning,  the  scientific  imagi- 
nation of  early  peoples  constructed  the  first  parents  in  various 
ways,  often  by  personifying  the  tribe  and  transferring  its  name  to 
the  mythical  ancestor.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  genealogical  lists 
of  the  post-Mohammedan  Arabians  arose ;  it  is  certain  that  they 
had  no  records  of  the  past  extending  further  than  a  few  genera- 
tions, and  in  some  cases  the  origins  of  the  names  in  genealogical 


1  So  in  Polynesia,  North  America,  China,  ancient  Greece,  and  among  the  Hebrews. 

2  As,  for  example,  the  Hebrews  (Deut.  xxxii.  S  f.). 

3  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  ng  ff. :  Taylor.  New 
Zealand,  chap,  xiv  and  p.  325  ;  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  3  ff.;  J.  G.  Miiller,  Geschichte  der 
amerikanischen  Urreligioncn,  pp.  ^i  ff->  l79  *?•>  §  61. 


370     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

lists  may  be  fixed.  The  Greek  method  of  naming  ancestors  is 
simple  and  obvious  :  the  sons  of  Hellen  are  Dorus,  Xuthus,  ^Eolus  ; 
the  sons  of  Xuthus  are  Achaeus  and  Ion ;  and  these  are  all  de- 
scended from  Deucalion.  In  like  manner  the  Pelasgians  are  carried 
back  to  the  ancestor  Pelasgus,  and  the  Peloponnesians  to  Pelops. 
The  Roman  Romulus,  Remulus,  Remus,  are  natural  inventions 
based  on  the  name  of  the  city. 

841.  Genealogical  elaboration  was  carried  out  more  fully  by 
the  Hebrews  than  by  any  other  ancient  people.  Not  only  were 
tribal  names,  Jacob,  Israel,  Judah,  Joseph,  Ephraim,  and  the  rest, 
personified,  but  they  were  arranged  in  a  well-shaped  family  system  ; 
and,  the  same  method  being  applied  to  all  the  nations  known  to 
them,  these  were  carried  up  to  the  three  sons  of  Noah,  and  finally 
through  Noah  up  to  the  first  man,  whose  Hebrew  name,  Adam, 
means  simply  man.1  The  table  of  nations  in  Genesis  x  is  a  re- 
markable example  of  ethnographic  organization.  As  it  is  based  on 
geographical  relations,  it  does  not  in  all  particulars  accord  with 
modern  ethnological  schemes,  but  it  is  a  noteworthy  attempt  to 
embrace  the  whole  world  in  a  family  picture.  The  view  that  the 
division  of  the  earth  among  the  various  peoples  revolved  around 
the  Israelite  territory  is  expressed  in  the  poem  cited  above,2  which 
is  of  the  seventh  century  B.C.,  and  it  may  be  inferred  that  this 
large  genealogical  unification  was  completed  among  the  Israelites 
at  a  time  when  they  felt  the  influence  of  the  great  Assyrian  civili- 
zation, with  which  they  seem  to  have  come  into  somewhat  intimate 
contact.  Later  examples  are  found  in  Vergil's  ./Eneid  and  Milton's 
"  History  of  Britain  "  (in  which  he  adopts  early  attempts  at  gen- 
ealogical construction). 

842.  Sociogonic  myths.  Most  of  the  customs  and  institutions  of 
early  peoples  go  back  to  a  time  when  there  were  no  records,  and 
their  introduction  was  naturally  referred,  so  soon  as  reflection 
thereon  began,  to  gods  and  heroes  of  primeval  time. 

1  So  the  Hindu  Manu  (man),  or  Father  Manu  (Rig-Veda,  ii,  33,  13),  is  the  pro- 
genitor of  the  human  race.  Cf.  the  "  first  man,"  Yama.  For  the  Old-Persian  genea- 
logical scheme  see  Spiegel,  Eranische  Altcrthumskimdc,  i,  473,  500  ff. 

2  Deut.  xxxii. 


MYTHS  371 

843.  The  arts  of  life  are  commonly  explained  in  this  mythical 
way.  The  beginnings  of  agriculture  are  referred  in  Melanesia  to 
the  Little  One  or  to  Qat,  in  Mexico  to  the  god  or  culture-hero 
Quetzalcoatl,  in  Peru  to  Viracocha  or  Pachacamac,  or  to  Manco 
Capac  and  his  wife.  For  the  Algonkins  Michabo,  the  Great  Hare, 
was  the  teacher  of  fishing  and  of  other  pursuits.1  The  Babylonian 
god  Ea  was  the  instructor  of  his  people  in  all  the  arts  of  civiliza- 
tion.2 In  the  Old  Testament  Cainite  (Kenite)  genealogy  the  origi- 
nators of  pastoral  life,  of  metal-working,  and  of  music,  are  the 
ancient  ancestors.3  In  the  Book  of  Enoch  the  employment  of 
metals,  the  use  of  writing,  and  in  general  all  the  early  arts  of  civili- 
zation are  ascribed  to  the  fallen  angels,  whose  children  are  repre- 
sented in  the  Book  of  Genesis  4  as  the  culture-heroes  of  the  olden 
time.  The  introduction  of  writing  into  Greece  is  ascribed  by  the 
Greeks  to  the  mythical  hero  or  demigod  Cadmus.5  Fire  is  in  India 
the  production  of  the  god  Agni 6  (who  is  simply  fire  elevated  to 
the  rank  of  a  personal  divinity)  ;  in  the  Greek  myth  it  is  stolen 
and  given  to  men  by  the  demigod  Prometheus  7  against  the  will 
of  the  gods,  who  are  jealous  of  human  progress.8  Among  various 
savage  tribes  there  are  similar  histories  of  the  derivation  of  the 
use  of  fire  from  superhuman  beings.9 

844.  Early  ceremonies,  as  we  have  seen,10  are  universally  con- 
nected with  religion,  and  their  origin  is  ascribed  to  divine  or  semi- 
divine  figures  of  the  past.  In  Australia  the  initiation  ceremonies, 
which  take  up  a  great  part  of  the  tribal  life,  are  regarded  as 
having  been  established  by  the  mythical  ancestors.11    Among  the 

1  Codrington,  The  Melanesians,  p.  156  ff. ;  Reville,  Native  Religions  of  Mexico 
and  Pent,  p.  64  ;  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  World,  p.  264,  and  American  Hero-Myths, 
pp.  186  f.,  195  ff.  ;  cf.  R.  B.  Brehm,  Das  hika-Rcich,  p.  24  ff. 

2  Jastrow,  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  .Assyria,  p.  89. 

3  Gen.  iv,  16  ff.  4  Gen.  vi,  1,  2,  4  (verse  3  is  an  interpolation). 

5  Herodotus,  v,  57  f. ;  Roscher,  Lexikon,  s.v.  Kadmos.        ,;  Rig-Veda,  i,  93,  6. 

7  Hesiod,  II  'oris  and  Days,  49  ff. 

8  In  the  story  in  Genesis  (ii,  17  ;  iii,  5,  22-24)  there  is  a  trace  of  such  jealousy; 
and  it  is  by  violation  of  the  command  of  the  deity  that  man  attains  the  knowledge  of 
good  and  evil. 

9  L.  Frobenius,  Childhood  of  Man,  chap,  xxv  (and  cf.  chap.  xxvi). 
1°  Chapter  iii. 

11  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  <  'entral  Australia,  p.  394  ff. 


372     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Hebrews  when  circumcision,  an  early  initiation  ceremony,1  became 
religiously  important,  its  establishment  was  referred  to  the  ancestor 
Abraham,  who  is  said  to  have  acted  by  direct  command  of  God,2 
but  in  earlier  documents  there  are  hints  of  other  origins  for  the  rite.3 
The  ritual  dances  of  the  North  American  Indians,  which  are  very 
elaborate,  are  accompanied  by  explanations  in  which  the  origin  of 
every  detail  is  referred  to  some  event  or  person  in  the  supernatural 
past ; 4  and  similar  explanations  are  given  of  the  dances  of  Mexico.5 
In  many  cases  the  restrictions  of  food  and  other  things  are  ascribed 
to  the  experiences  of  the  ancestors  or  to  the  commands  of  deities : 
the  Hebrew  usage  of  not  eating  a  certain  sinew  is  connected  with 
the  story  of  the  struggle  between  Jacob  and  a  divine  being.6 

845.  Festivals  also  were  treated  in  this  manner  as  soon  as  men 
began  to  reflect  on  the  origin  of  society.  As  one  feature  in  the 
festival  sacred  to  Mars  (March  i)  was  the  dancing  of  the  priests 
who  carried  curious  shields,  it  was  narrated,  to  account  for  this, 
that  the  shield  of  Mars  fell  down  from  heaven ; 7  and  the  goddess 
Maia,  according  to  one  conjecture,  was  invented  to  explain  the 
name  of  the  month  of  May.8  A  Greek  explanation  of  the  fact  that 
children  at  a  later  period  were  not  called  by  the  mother's  name 
was  that  in  the  contest  between  Poseidon  and  Athene  for  the 
control  of  the  city  of  Athens  the  latter  deity  prevailed  by  the  votes 
of  the  women,  who  were  in  the  majority,  and  to  appease  the  wrath 
of  Poseidon  this  rule  was  then  made  by  the  men.9  The  Gileadite 
festival  in  which  maidens  lamented  the  death  of  the  daughter  of 
Jephthah  10  was  doubtless  an  old  rite  in  which  the  death  of  some 
divinity  was  bewailed.  The  Greek  Boedromia  was  referred  to 
the  succor  given  by  Theseus  against  the  Amazons,11  and  in  the 

1  See  above,  §  153  ff.  2  Gen.  xvii.  3  Ex.  iv,  24-26  ;  Josh,  v,  2  ff. 

4  W.  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  40  ff. ;  J.  W.  Fewkes,  The  Winter  Solstice 
Cercmoriy  at  Wcilpi. 

5  Reville,  Native  Religions  of  Mexico  and  Pern  (Hibbert  Lectures),  pp.  94  f.,  no 
(cf.  ib.,  p.  224  f.,  on  Peruvian  dances).    See  above,  §  109,  note  6. 

6  Gen.  xxxii,  24  ff.  "  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  p.  3S. 

8  Fowler,  op.  cit,  p.  99  ff. ;  for  another  view  see  Roscher,  Lcxikon,  article  "  Maia 
II  "  ;  cf.  Wissowa,  Religion  dcr  Rb'mer,  p.  185. 

9  Augustine,  De  Civitate  Dei,  18,  9.  10  Judg.  xi,  30  ff. 
11  Plutarch,  Theseus,  27. 


MYTHS  373 

celebration  of  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  aetiological  myths  connected 
with  Demcter,  Kore,  and  Dionysos  formed  the  central  part  of  the 
proceedings.1  In  the  Old  Testament  the  spring  festival  (Passover) 
is  connected  with  the  departure  of  the  people  from  Egypt,  and  the 
autumn  festival  (Tabernacles)  with  the  sojourn  in  the  wilderness ; 
and  by  the  later  Jews  the  midsummer  festival  (the  Feast  of  Weeks, 
Pentecost)  was  similarly  brought  into  connection  with  the  giving 
of  the  law  on  Mount  Sinai. 

846.  Relation  between  myth  and  ritual.  The  question  whether 
myth  comes  from  ritual  or  ritual  from  myth  has  been  much  dis- 
cussed. Obviously  universal  precedence  cannot  be  allowed  to  either 
of  the  two.  There  are  cases  in  which  primary  mythical  beliefs 
determine  the  form  of  religious  procedure  :  the  belief,  for  example, 
that  a  god,  as  anthropomorphic  divine  patron,  must  be  placated 
and  provided  with  all  the  accessories  of  a  potentate,  leads  to  the 
offering  of  food  and  other  gifts  and  to  the  establishment  of  abodes 
and  attendants  ;  the  sense  of  his  aloofness  and  of  his  powerful  and 
dangerous  qualities  induces  cautionary  rules  for  approach  to  his 
presence ;  because  he  has  manlike  intellectual  and  emotional  lim- 
itations his  favor  must  be  secured  by  prayers  and  praises  ;  if  he  has 
a  son,  this  latter  may  act  as  mediator  between  his  father  and  a  sup- 
pliant, or  one  god  may  mediate  with  others  in  behalf  of  men.2  On  the 
other  hand,  there  are  many  examples  of  myths  that  arise  as  expla- 
nation of  ritualistic  details.3  It  is  sometimes  hard  to  say  on  which  side 
the  precedence  in  time  lies.  In  general,  it  seems,  it  is  from  broader 
and  fundamental  mythical  conceptions  that  ritual  arises,  while 
mythical  narratives  spring  from  particular  ritualistic  observances. 

847.  Important  religious  changes  which  have  come  to  pass 
through   natural  changes  of   thought,   usually  by  the   movement 


1  F.  B.  Jevons,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion,  chap,  xxiii  f.  ;  Miss  J.  E. 
Harrison,  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  chap,  x  ;  K.  H.  E.  de  Jong, 
Das  antikc  Mysteriemvesen,  pp.  14,  16,  18  ;  Preller,  "  Eleusinia  "  in  Pauly's  Realency- 
elo/ddie  ;  Reitzenstein,  Hellenistische  Mysterienreligion. 

2  In  Babylonia  such  roles  are  ascribed  to  Ea  and  Marduk  (Jastrow,  Religion  of 
Babylonia  a nd  Assyria,  pp.  137,  139,  276). 

3  See  above,  §  S44  f. ;  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  pp.  18,  173  ff. , 
Records  of  the  Past,  vi,  10S. 


374     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

toward  greater  refinement,  are  explained  as  having  been  intro- 
duced by  some  great  reformer.  The  abrogation  of  human  sacrifice 
was  a  reform  of  great  moment:  in  Mexico  it  is  ascribed  to  the 
god  Quetzalcoatl,1  and  in  the  Old  Testament  to  Abraham  acting 
by  command  of  God.2  One  of  the  Incas  of  Peru  is  said  to  have 
reached  monotheistic  views  by  a  process  of  reasoning,  and  the  post- 
Biblical  Jewish  myths  ascribed  the  same  achievement  to  Abraham.3 

848.  As  a  rule  sacred  places  were  connected  with  stories  of 
the  presence  of  divine  personages  or  mythical  ancestors.  In  Samoa, 
the  Hawaian  group,  and  other  Pacific  islands  many  stones  are 
connected  with  stories  of  heroes,  spirits,  or  gods.4  In  Central  Aus- 
tralia every  stone,  rock,  or  tree  has  its  myth  of  the  half-bestial 
ancestors.5  In  Greece,  as  Pausanias  relates,  there  was  hardly  a 
place  that  did  not  have  its  story  of  the  origin  of  some  sacred  spot 
or  thing  due  to  a  god.6  In  the  earlier  books  of  the  Old  Testament 
the  sacred  places,  which  were  Arabian  or  Canaanite  shrines  adopted 
by  the  Hebrews,  are  generally  connected  with  the  presence  of 
the  patriarchs  or  other  great  men.  The  magical  qualities  of  springs, 
pools,  and  other  bodies  of  water  are  explained  by  stories  in  which 
a  god  or  other  divine  person  descends  into  them,  or  in  some  other 
way  communicates  power.' 

849.  Myths  of  heavenly  bodies,  winds,  and  vegetation.  As  the 
sun,  the  moon,  and  other  objects  of  nature  were  regarded  as  an- 
thropomorphic persons  and  naturally  came  into  relation  with  men, 


i  The  myths  connected  with  Quetzalcoatl  (see  Brinton,  American  Hero-Myths, 
and  L.  Spence,  Mythologies  of  Ancient  Mexico  and  Pern)  do  not  relate  mostly  to  the 
movements  and  deeds  of  the  sun  or  the  winds,  but  arose  from  his  character  as  local 
deity  with  universal  powers.  Social  and  political  events  were  woven  into  them.  His 
contest  with  Tezcatlipoca  seems  to  reflect  the  struggle  between  two  tribes  ;  his  de- 
feat signifies  the  victory  of  the  conquering  tribe,  and  the  expectation  of  his  return 
(by  which  the  invading  Spaniards,  it  is  said,  profited)  was  based  on  the  political  hope 
of  his  people.    Cf.  similar  expectations  among  other  peoples. 

2  Gen.  xxii. 

3  B.  Beer,  Lcbcn  Abraham's  nach  Auffassung  dcr  jiidischen  Sage,  p.  5  and  note  34  ; 
p.  102,  note  30.  4  Turner,  Samoa,  Index. 

5  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  chap,  xviii. 

6  Pausanias,  Description  of  Greece,  passim. 

7  Semitic  and  other  examples  are  given  in  W.  R.  Smith's  Religion  of  the  Semites, 
p.  173 ff. 


MYTHS  375 

their  imagined  adventures  have  produced  a  great  mass  of  stories 
in  all  parts  of  the  world.  These  stories  are  partly  attempts  to 
account  for  phenomena  and  partly  are  simply  products  of  fancy ; 
the  myth-maker  is  very  often  a  mere  story-teller.  The  sun,  con- 
ceived of  usually  as  an  old  man,  is  supposed  to  live  in  a  house  up 
in  the  sky,  to  have  his  wife  and  children,  to  receive  visitors,  and 
to  interfere  to  some  extent  in  human  affairs.  An  eclipse  was  ob- 
viously to  be  regarded  as  the  work  of  an  enemy  of  the  sun,  usually 
a  dragon  (so  in  many  low  tribes,  and  in  India).  A  great  excess  of 
heat  on  the  earth  might  be  explained  by  the  supposition  that  the 
chariot  of  the  sun  had  been  driven  too  near  the  surface.1  The 
waning  of  the  moon  was  supposed  to  be  due  to  her  sorrow  at 
the  loss  of  her  children,  the  stars,  which  were  devoured  by  the  sun. 
The  moon  might  be  a  fair  woman  who  becomes  enamored  of 
a  human  being.  At  a  later  time  in  the  progress  of  astronomical 
knowledge  the  planets  and  certain  of  the  stars  were  individualized 
—  they  became  actors  in  human  history  or,  still  later,  the  abode  of 
supernatural  beings.2 

850.  The  beginnings  of  astrological  theory  are  probably  to  be 
recognized  at  a  very  early  period.  The  height  of  the  sky  above 
the  earth,  the  persistence  with  which  the  stars  seem  to  look  down 
on  men,  the  invariability  <>f  their  courses,  the  mysteriousness  of 
their  origin  would  naturally  lead  to  the  belief  that  they  had  some 
control  over  human  affairs.  Meteors,  regarded  as  falling  stars, 
have  always  been  objects  of  dread.  The  development  of  astrology 
has  been  clue  to  the  increase  of  astronomical  knowledge  and  to 
the  tendency  to  organize  religion  in  its  aspect  of  dependence  on 
the  supernatural  Powers.3 

851.  Winds  have  played  a  less  prominent  part  in  theistic  history 
than  the  heavenly  bodies,  but  have  given  rise  to  not  a  few  myths 

1  On  the  complicated  myth  of  Phacthon  see  the  article  in  Koscher's  Lexikon. 

2  Isa.  xxiv,  21  ;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  356  ff. 

3  The  Babylonians  were  the  great  astronomers  and  astrologers  of  antiquity,  but 
their  eminence  in  this  regard  belongs  to  their  later  period.  After  the  fall  of  the  later 
Babylonian  empire  (B.C.  539)  the  term  'Chaldean'  became  a  synonym  of '  astrolo- 
ger '  (so  in  the  Book  of  Daniel,  B.C.  165-164) ;  cf.  Jastrow,  .  Xspects  of  Religious  Belief 
and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  259  f. 


376     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

in  religions  of  different  grades  of  culture  and  in  different  parts  of 
the  world.1  In  the  Scandinavian  myths  the  storm  wind  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  prevailing  climatic  condition  has  assumed  special 
prominence.  In  the  Iliad  when  a  messenger  is  dispatched  to  the 
abode  of  the  winds  to  secure  their  aid,  these  are  found  feasting 
like  a  human  family.2  Later,  winds  are,  of  course,  subordinated 
to  the  great  gods. 

852.  From  time  to  time  theories  have  arisen  explaining  many 
deities  and  heroes  as  representatives  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and 
many  stories  of  gods  and  heroes  as  reflecting  the  phenomena  of 
the  sky  or  the  air.  Such  theories  have  been  carried  so  far  some- 
times as  to  explain  everything  in  mythology  as  a  solar  or  lunar 
or  astral  myth.  These  constructions  leave  much  to  the  fancy,  and 
it  is  not  difficult  to  find  in  mythical  narratives  references  to  the 
movements  of  the  sun  or  the  moon  or  the  stars  or  the  winds. 
It  is  possible  that  such  reference  really  exists  in  certain  stories.  It 
is  probable  also  that  simple  myths  representing  such  phenomena 
have  been  in  later  times  elaborated  and  brought  into  connection 
with  a  more  detailed  astronomical  knowledge.  The  same  principles 
of  interpretation  should  guide  us  here  as  are  referred  to  above. 

853.  There  are  doubtless  cases  in  which  a  hero  or  a  god  repre- 
sents the  sun  or  the  moon,  the  correspondence  between  the  ad- 
ventures of  the  hero  and  the  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies 
being  plain.  The  twelve  labors  of  Heracles  may  represent  the 
passage  of  the  sun  through  the  twelve  signs  of  the  zodiac ;  but  if 
this  be  the  case,  it  is  certain  that  such  construction  was  relatively 
late,  and  that  the  separate  adventures  must  be  referred  to  some 
more  simple  facts.  If  Heracles  slays  the  Hydra,  it  is  more  natural 
to  regard  this  as  having  represented  originally  some  mundane 
phenomenon  of  nature  or  some  simple  conflict  of  the  savage  life. 

1  Brinton,  Myths  of  the  New  World,  passim  ;  Hartland,  Primitive  Paternity,  i, 
149  f. ;  Grey,  Polynesian  Mythology,  p.  1  ff. ;  Hickson,  Northern  Celebes  ;  Lane,  Ara- 
bian Nights,  i,  30  ff. ;  Saussaye,  Religion  of  the  Teutons,  p.  216  f. ;  Iliad,  xxiii,  198  ff. ; 
Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  360  ff. ;  Ratzel,  History  of  Mankind  (Eng.  tr.),  passim. 

2  Iliad,  xxiii,  200  f.  For  some  wind-myths  see  Roscher,  Lexikon,  articles  "  Borea- 
den,"  "  Boreas,"  "  Harpyia."  Cf.  the  Maori  myths  given  in  R.  Taylor's  New  Zealand, 
chap,  vi,  and  for  Navaho  winds  see  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  226,  note  75. 


MYTHS  377 

The  same  thing  is  probably  true  of  the  adventures  of  the  Babylonian 
hero  Gilgamesh,  who  is  sometimes  considered  to  be  the  original  of 
Heracles.  Nothing  is  easier  than  to  expound  the  story  of  Samson 
in  the  Old  Testament  as  a  series  of  solar  and  other  phenomena,1 
but  the  probability  is  that  he  embodies  the  vague  recollections  of 
early  tribal  adventures,  and,  notwithstanding  his  name  (which  means 
1  solar,'  that  is,  devoted  to  the  sun),  there  is  no  good  ground  for 
supposing  that  his  history  has  been  astronomically  worked  over. 
A  similar  remark  applies  to  many  discussions  respecting  various 
deities,  Hindu  (as  Indra),  Egyptian  (as  Osiris),  Semitic  (as  Nergal, 
Marduk,  Nabu),  and  Greek  (as  Apollo).  In  all  such  cases  it  is 
necessary  to  inquire  first  whether  the  explanation  of  the  myth  may 
not  be  found  naturally  in  some  ordinary  human  experience  or  some 
very  simple  natural  phenomenon,  and  a  line  of  demarcation  must 
be  drawn  between  original  forms  of  the  myth  and  later  learned 
constructions. 

854.  Another  source  of  mythical  narration  is  the  history  of 
vegetation,  which  at  the  present  time  has  largely  supplanted  the 
solar  theory.  The  amazing  spectacle  of  the  decay  and  revival  of 
vegetation,  naturally  referred  to  superhuman  power,  and  the  im- 
portance of  plants  for  human  life,  have  led  to  the  construction 
of  stories  (sometimes  founded  on  ritual)  in  which  the  adventures 
of  the  spirit  of  vegetation  are  recounted.  Obviously  there  is  a 
sound  basis  for  this  view.  The  earth  was  necessarily  regarded  as 
the  mother  from  whom  came  the  corn  and  wine  that  supported 
human  life.  The  study  of  the  relatively  modern  European  cere- 
monies 2  has  brought  out  the  persistence  of  such  an  idea,  and  the 
similarity  between  the  new  ceremonies  and  the  old  may  be  said 
to  have  demonstrated  the  existence  of  an  early  cult  of  the  divine 
Power  controlling  vegetation. 

855.  The  Asian  Magna  Mater  and  the  Greek  Mother  (Demeter) 
or  Maiden  (Kore,  Persephone)  are  identical  in  function  with  the 

1  As  in  Goldzihers  Hebrew  Mythology  (Eng.  tr.),  a  view  later  abandoned  by  the 
author. 

2  By  Mannhardt,  in  Mythologische  Forschttngen^  p.  224  ff . ;  Frazer,  in  Golden 
Bough,  2d  ed.  (see  Index,  s.v.  Com)  ;  and  others. 


378     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

corn  maiden  of  modern  times,  and  the  latter  figure  may  be  a  de- 
graded or  socialized  descendant  of  an  early  deity.  When  we  add 
that  ancient  local  deities  all  took  account  of  the  products  of  the 
soil,  it  will  not  seem  improbable  that  a  great  mass  of  stories  should 
have  arisen  describing  the  adventures  of  the  Spirit  of  Vegetation.1 
The  descent  of  a  hero  or  a  god  into  Hades  may  be  explained  as 
the  passage  of  the  sun  from  its  summer  warmth  to  its  winter  feeble- 
ness, or  as  the  annual  death  and  revival  of  vegetation.  Which  of  these 
views  shall  be  adopted  will  depend  in  any  case  on  the  particular 
coloring  of  the  story,  on  the  signification  of  the  names  involved,  or 
on  the  ceremonies  accompanying  the  worship.  It  is  not  now  pos- 
sible to  frame  a  theory  that  shall  embrace  all  possible  phenomena. 
856.  Certain  great  myths  have  in  the  course  of  time  taken  on 
elaborate  literary  form,  and  in  this  form  show  traces  of  advanced 
thought  on  some  fundamental  questions.  Such  myths  occur  among 
half-civilized  peoples.  There  is,  for  example,  the  great  mythical 
cosmogony  of  the  Maoris  of  New  Zealand  —  a  scheme  seemingly 
so  philosophic  in  form  that  it  excites  wonder  as  to  how  it  could 
have  arisen  in  such  a  place."  The  story  of  the  adventures  of  Maui, 
a  general  Polynesian  figure,  constitutes  a  Polynesian  history  of  the 
rise  of  civilization.  Among  the  North  American  Indians  the  mytho- 
logical systems  of  the  Algonkins,  the  Pawnees,  and  other  tribes, 
include  the  origin  of  all  forms  of  natural  objects  and  all  institutions 
of  society.  The  histories  of  the  Great  Hare  of  the  Lenape,  the 
Thunder  Bird  of  the  West,  and  the  various  transformers  or  culture- 
heroes,  are  scarcely  less  elaborate  than  the  New  Zealand  stories. 
The  mythologies  of  the  Finns  also  (given  in  the  Kalevala)  are 
noteworthy.  Passing  to  higher  forms,  it  is  sufficient  to  note  the 
suggestive  story  of  Balder  among  the  Scandinavians,  and,  in  the 
ancient  world,  the  Egyptian  Osiris  myth,  the  Great  Dragon  myth  of 
the  Babylonian  cosmogony,  the  various  forms  of  the  story  of  a 
primeval  paradise,  and  the  ceremonies  and  ideas  that  have  arisen 
in  connection  with  the  death  of  a  god. 

i  Cf.  Frazer,  op.  cit.,  chap,  iii,  §  16  f. ;  Roscher,  Lexikon,  articles  "  Kybele,"  "  At- 
tis,"  '''  Persephone,"  "  Ceres  "  ;  and  Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States. 
2  See  above,  §  678. 


MYTHS  379 

857.  The  motif  of  the  antagonism  between  light  and  darkness 
appears  to  be  attached  to  or  involved  in  certain  myths,  especially 
the  great  cosmogonies  and  stories  in  which  solar  deities  figure 
prominently.  The  original  unformed  mass  of  matter  is  often,  per- 
haps generally,  conceived  of  as  being  in  darkness,  and  its  transfor- 
mation is  attended  with  the  appearance  of  light1  —  light  is  an 
essential  element  in  the  conditions  that  make  earthly  human  life 
possible  ;  in  contrast  with  the  Upperworld  the  Underworld  is  dark. 
The  diffusion  of  light  is  a  main  function  of  the  sun,  and  the  high 
gods  dwell  in  continual  brightness.'2  Light  is  the  symbol  of  right, 
security,  and  happiness.  But  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  expression 
of  the  antithesis  and  conflict  of  light  and  darkness  is  the  immediate 
object  of  the  early  portraitures  of  deities  and  the  mythical  narra- 
tives of  creation  and  the  future  of  the  world.  The  Egyptian  Ra 
has  no  conflict  with  darkness,  and  the  struggle  between  Osiris  (and 
Horus)  and  Set,  while  it  may  be  and  often  is  interpreted  in  this 
sense,  is  susceptible  of  other  interpretations.  The  motif  in  the 
Babylonian  cosmogony  is  the  bringing  of  order  out  of  disorder,  in 
which  work  the  creation  of  light  is  an  incident.  In  ethically  ad- 
vanced religious  systems,  such  as  the  Hindu  and  the  Persian,  the 
good  Powers  are  connected  with  light  and  the  wicked  Powers  with 
darkness,  but  a  conflict  between  these  adjuncts  is  not  brought  out 
clearly.  No  such  conflict  appears  in  Greek  mythology.  Where  a 
supernatural  being  intervenes  in  defense  of  light  (as  when  a  god 
destroys  a  dragon-creature  who  attempts  to  swallow  the  sun),  this 
is  simply  an  explanation  of  a  physical  phenomenon,  and  not  a 
conflict  between  light  and  darkness. 

858.  The  theory,  widely  held,  that  a  great  body  of  early  myths, 
including  the  conception  of  the  characters  and  functions  of  many 
deities,  represent  the  struggle  between  light  and  darkness,  is,  there- 
fore, not  sustained  by  the  facts.  Such  a  generalization  is  found  in 
late  philosophic  systems,  but  it  does  not  belong  to  early  religious 
thought,  which  deals  with  concrete  personal  agents.3  A  conflict 
between  two  gods  is  often  to  be  explained  as  the  rivalry  of  two 

1  Gen.  i,  2  f.  2  Dan.  ii,  22  ;  Rev.  xxi,  23. 

3  This  is  true  even  in  the  case  of  abstract  deities ;  see  above,  §§  696,  702  ff. 


380     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

districts  or  of  two  forms  of  culture.  Attacks  on  luminous  bodies, 
or  defenses  of  them,  are  common  as  ^etiological  myths,  and  an 
antagonism  between  light  and  darkness  then  naturally  appears,  as 
is  observed  above,  as  an  accessory  or  incident,  but  not  as  an  im- 
mediate object  of  mythical  portraiture.  The  closeness  of  the 
relation  between  the  light-and-darkness  theory  and  the  solar  theory 
of  myths  is  obvious. 

859.  Myth  and  legend.  In  the  course  of  the  formulation  of 
myths  they  have  naturally  become  mingled  with  legend.  As  they 
narrate  the  achievements  of  the  great  supernatural  figures  of  the 
past,  these  achievements  have  often  become  blended  in  the  twilight 
of  tradition  with  actual  (though  embellished)  experiences  of  the 
clan  or  tribe  and  of  the  great  men  therewith  connected.1  In  such 
cases  it  is  generally  difficult  to  decide  where  legend  ends  and  myth 
begins,  and  every  story  must  be  investigated  separately,  and  its 
nature  determined  from  what  is  known  of  the  real  history  of  the 
time  and  of  the  development  of  mythical  ideas.  Familiar  examples 
of  this  combination  of  legend  and  myth  appear  in  connection  with 
the  Homeric  poems,  certain  Asian  and  Greek  cults,  and  the  early 
histories  of  Greece  and  Rome  and  Israel.2  The  elucidation  of  such 
narratives  must  be  left  to  the  technical  investigator  in  the  various 
historical  periods.  In  general,  it  may  be  said,  there  is  enough  his- 
torical material  to  enable  us  to  trace  the  development  of  tribes  and 
nations  with  a  fair  degree  of  certainty ;  and  the  caution  already 
expressed  against  excessive  mythological  interpretation  is  especially 
in  place  in  such  researches.3 

The  material  published  under  the  general  title  of  "  folk-lore  " 
consists  of  various  elements  —  purely  religious  usages  and  ideas, 
mythical  and  legendary  narratives,  and  fanciful  stories.  As  the 
term,   defined    precisely,    refers    only   to    popular    survivals  from 

1  A  myth  is  a  purely  imaginative  explanation  of  phenomena ;  a  legend  rests  on 
facts,  but  the  facts  are  distorted.  The  two  terms  are  often  confused  the  one  with  the 
other. 

2  Some  peculiar  combinations  appear  in  the  figures  of  Semiramis  and  the  Kuretes 
and  the  Korybantes ;  see  the  articles  in  Roscher's  Lcxikon  under  these  headings. 

3  Cf.  Gomme,  Folklore  as  an  Historical  Science  ;  Van  Gennep,  La  formation  des 
legendes. 


MYTHS  38 1 

defunct  religious  systems,  its  material  shows  a  constant  process  of 
modification  from  generation  to  generation  by  newer  ideas.  The 
mythical  element,  extricated  from  the  general  mass,  must  be  treated 
in  accordance  with  the  general  principles  of  the  criticism  of  myths.1 

860.  Mythical  biographies.  As  gods  and  heroes  are  the  actors 
in  mythical  constructions  of  society,  the  stories  in  such  construc- 
tions generally  assume  the  form  of  anecdotal  biographies  of  these 
personages.  Such  sketches  gather  fresh  material  from  generation 
to  generation,  are  gradually  worked  up  into  literary  shape,  and, 
being  brought  into  connection  with  historical  traditions,  assume 
historical  form,  and  are  then  sometimes  accepted  in  their  homes 
and  elsewhere  as  historical.'2  As  they  embody  the  ideas  of  the 
times  in  which  they  originate,  they  have,  in  so  far,  historical  and 
psychological  value.  Charm  of  style  has  given  some  of  these 
stories  literary  value,  and  they  have  been  accepted  as  part  of  the 
literary  treasure  of  the  world.  They  are  sometimes  combinations 
or  fusions  of  myth  and  legend,  and  these  two  elements  are  not 
always  easily  distinguishable  the  one  from  the  other.3 

861.  In  questions  that  touch  the  original  nature  of  a  god  the 
possible  difference  between  earlier  and  later  conceptions  of  him 
must,  of  course,  be  borne  in  mind.  When  a  deity  has  been  defi- 
nitely shaped  and  has  become  a  patron  of  a  community,  he  may 
be  identified  by  the  people,  or  particularly  by  poets  and  priests, 
with  any  object  or  idea  that  is  of  special  interest  to  the  community. 
The  baals  of  the  agricultural  Canaanites  presided  over  irrigation, 
but  were  not  specifically  underground  gods  ; 4  they  were  rather 
general  divine  patrons  interested  in  all  that  interested  the  people. 
A  solar  deity,  becoming  the  favorite  god  of  an  agricultural  com- 
munity, may  be  regarded  as  connected  with  vegetation ;  or  a  god 
of  vegetation  may  be  associated,  in  astronomical  circles,  with  the 
sun.  A  divine  figure  is  often  composite,  the  product  of  the  coales- 
cence of  several  orders  of  ideas.    In  general  it  may  be  said  that 

1  See  the  various  folk-lore  journals  ;  W.  W.  Newell,  article  "  Folk-lore  "  in  John- 
son's Universal  Cyclopedia;  cf.  Gomme,  op.  cit.,  and  §  88 1  below. 

2  So  in  the  cases  of  the  Australian  ancestors,  the  Polynesian,  Teutonic,  Finnic, 
Slavic,  Greek,  Phrygian,  and  other  heroes  and  gods,  the  Hebrew  patriarchs,  and  many 
other  such  figures.  3  See  above,  §  859.  4  See  above,  §  649. 


382     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  simplest  and  least  socially  refined  function  of  a  god  is  likely  to 
indicate  his  original  character.  We  must  go  behind  the  concep- 
tions of  cultivated  times  to  the  hints  given  in  popular  observances 
and  poetry. 

862.  Interpretation  of  myths.  For  savage  and  half-civilized  com- 
munities, and  for  the  masses  in  civilized  times,  the  stories  of  the 
achievements  and  adventures  of  gods,  heroes,  and  ancestors,  ac- 
cepted as  history,  have  been  and  are  sources  of  enjoyment  and  of 
intellectual  impulse.  Narrated  by  fathers  to  their  families,  and 
recited  or  sung  by  professional  orators  and  poets  to  groups  and 
crowds  throughout  the  land,1  they  have  been  expanded  and  handed 
down  from  generation  to  generation,  receiving  from  every  gener- 
ation the  coloring  of  its  experiences  and  ideas,  and  in  the  course 
of  time  have  taken  literary  shape  under  the  hands  of  men  of 
genius,  and  have  been  committed  to  writing.  For  the  early  times 
they  not  only  formed  a  body  of  historical  literature,  but  also,  since 
they  described  relations  between  men  and  gods,  came  to  be  some- 
what vague  yet  real  sacred  scriptures  of  the  people.2  As  such, 
being  regarded  simply  as  statements  of  facts,  they  needed  no  out- 
side interpretation ;  and  being  molded  by  human  experience,  they 
carried  with  them  such  moral  and  religious  instruction  as  grew 
naturally  out  of  the  situations  described.  A  more  highly  cultivated 
age,  dissatisfied  with  bald  facts,  desired  to  find  in  the  stories  the 
wisdom  of  the  fathers,  and  the  imagination  of  poets  and  philoso- 
phers was  long  occupied  with  discovering  and  expounding  their 
deeper  meanings  till  further  research  set  aside  such  attempts  as 
useless.  The  treatment  of  mythical  material  thus  shows  three 
stadia :  the  acceptance  of  myths  as  genuine  history ;  esoteric  ex- 
planations of  their  assumed  profound  teachings  ;  and  finally,  return 
to  their  original  character  as  primitive  science,  having  their  origin 
in  crude  conceptions  of  life.    A  brief  sketch  may  show  how  the 

1  Such  were  the  Greek  rhapsodises  (Midler  and  Donaldson,  History  of  the  Litera- 
ture of  Ancient  Greece,  i,  33  ff.),  and  probably  the  Hebrew  mashalists  (Numb,  xxi,  27, 
Eng.  tr.,  "they  that  speak  in  proverbs").  Such  reciters  are  found  in  India  at  the 
present  day. 

2  On  the  value  of  myths  for  religious  instruction  cf.  Schultz,  Old  Testament  The- 
ology, Eng.  tr.  (of  4th  German  ed.),  i,  chap  ii. 


MYTHS 


383 


interpretation  of  myths  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  an  historical 
and  sociological  science. 

863.  .indent  interpretations  of  myths.  When  the  progress  of 
thought,  especially  in  Greece,  made  it  impossible  to  accept  the 
current  beliefs  concerning  gods  and  their  doings,  it  was  felt  neces- 
sary to  put  some  higher  meaning  into  them  —  they  were  rationalized 
and  spiritualized  by  a  process  of  allegorization.  This  process  seems 
to  have  begun  in  Greece  as  early  as  the  sixth  century  b.c.1  It  was 
the  philosophers  who  undertook  to  reinterpret  the  Homeric  mythi- 
cal material,  and  the  extent  to  which  this  procedure  had  been  carried 
in  the  time  of  Plato  is  indicated  by  the  fact  that  he  ridicules  these 
modes  of  dealing  with  the  poet.2  But  Homer  maintained  his  place 
in  literature,  and  the  demand  for  a  spiritualizing  of  his  works  in- 
creased rather  than  diminished.  A  science  of  allegory  was  created, 
Pergamus  became  one  of  its  chief  centers,3  and  the  Alexandrian 
Jew  Philo  applied  the  method  to  the  interpretation  of  the  Penta- 
teuch. It  was  speedily  adopted  in  the  Christian  world,  and  has 
there  maintained  itself,  though  in  diminishing  extent,  up  to  the 
present  day.4  As  a  serious  interpretation  of  ancient  myths,  outside 
of  the  Old  Testament,  it  is  no  longer  employed.  Myths  are,  in- 
deed, important  as  reflecting  early  opinions,  religious  and  other  — 
good  doctrinal  matter  may  be  extracted  from  them,  but  this  must 
not  be  ascribed  to  the  intention  of  their  authors  and  reporters.  In 
the  Old  Testament  itself  the  Jewish  editors  have  socialized  the 
mythical  material  (weaving  it  into  the  history,  as  in  Genesis),  or 
have  brought  it  under  the  work  of  the  national  deity. 

864.  Recent  interpretations.  In  recently  proposed  interpretations 
we  may  note  first  certain  attempts  at  a  unification  of  some  body 
of  myths  or  of  all  known  mythical  material.  These  attempts, 
almost  without  -exception,  take  the  sky  and  the  heavenly  bodies 
as  their  basis. 

1  Geffcken,  article  "Allegory  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  Phccdrus,  229  ;   Cralylns,  406  f.  ;  Republic,  37S. 

3  Cf.  Miiller  and  Donaldson,  History  of  the  Literature  of  Ancient  Greece, 
chap.  xxvi. 

4  1  Cor.  ix,  9  f . ;  x,  1-4  ;  Gal.  iv,  24  ff. ;  Heb.  vii,  2  ;  Origen,  Augustine,  Thomas 
Aquinas,  and  commentators  generally  up  to  the  sixteenth  century  and  later. 


584     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

At  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  the  theory  of  human 
unity  had  taken  hold  of  the  French  revolutionists,  C.  F.  Dupuis  1 
undertook  to  explain  all  the  cults  of  the  world  as  having  come 
from  the  worship  of  the  universe  —  a  conception  broad  enough 
to  cover  everything ;  but  he  practically  reduces  it  to  the  worship 
of  the  heavenly  bodies,  particularly  the  sun,  and  derives  all  myths 
from  stellar  objects.  His  work  is  ingenious,  learned,  and  sugges- 
tive, but  in  his  day  the  facts  of  ancient  mythology  were  insufficiently 
known. 

865.  In  the  next  century  the  study  of  Sanskrit  and  Old  Persian 
widened  the  field  of  knowledge,  the  science  of  Indo-European 
grammar  was  created,  and  on  this  followed  attempts  at  the  con- 
struction of  an  Indo-European  mythology.  The  first  definitely 
formulated  unification  was  the  theory  of  F.  Max  Muller,2  which 
derived  all  Aryan  (Indo-European")  myths  from  phenomena  of  the 
sun  and  the  dawn,  largely,  he  held,  through  misunderstandings  of 
the  meaning  of  old  descriptive  terms  (myths  as  a  "  disease  of 
language").  It  is  conceivable  that  a  word,  originally  used  simply 
as  descriptive  of  an  actual  fact,  may  have  passed  into  a  proper 
name  and  become  personalized  and  the  center  of  adventures ;  but 
the  character  of  early  man's  thought,  as  we  now  know  it,  makes 
it  impossible  to  regard  such  a  view  as  a  probable  explanation  of 
the  mass  of  mythological  material.  Mullens  sendees  to  the  science 
of  the  history  of  religions  were  great,  but  his  theory  of  the  origin 
of  myths  has  now  been  generally  abandoned.3 

866.  The  great  discoveries  of  literary  material  made  in  Egypt 
and  Babylonia  since  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  have 
aroused  special  interest  in  the  religions  of  these  countries.  Leader- 
ship in  ancient  civilization  is  claimed  by  Egyptologists  and  Assyri- 
ologists,  each  party  for  its  own  land.  It  is,  however,  Babylonia  that 
has  given  rise  to  the  largest  theories  of  the  unity  of  myths  —  a 
fact  due  in  part  to  its  development  of  astronomy,  in  part,  perhaps, 
to  the  resemblance  between  the  Babylonian  mythical  material  and 

1  Origine  tie  tons  les  enltes  on  religion  linkers elk  (i794)- 

2  Scienee  of  Language,  2d  series;  cf.  his  Hibbert  and  Gifford  lectures. 

3  It  is  elaborated  in  G.  W.  Cox's  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations. 


MYTHS  385 

that  of  the  Old  Testament.  Dupuis '  had  observed  that  the  ancient 
Chaldeans  taught  that  the  heavenly  bodies  controlled  mundane 
destinies,  and,  according  to  Diodorus,  that  the  planets  were  the  in- 
terpreters of  the  will  of  the  gods.  This  is  substantially  the  point 
of  view  of  E.  Stucken,2  who,  in  common  with  Dupuis  ("though,  ap- 
parently, independently ),  holds  to  the  unity  of  ancient  religions  and 
the  astral  origin  of  all  myths.  From  Babylonia,  he  thinks,  myths 
passed  to  all  parts  of  the  world,  Egypt,  Asia,  Europe,  Polynesia, 
and  America  —  in  such  migrations,  however,  it  was  the  motif  that 
passed ;  the  personages  might  vary  in  different  lands.3  Finally  he 
traces  all  sagas  of  all  peoples  to  the  creation  myth.4  This  supreme 
unification  is  reached  by  arguments  so  far-fetched  as  to  deprive 
them  of  force. 

Stucken's  position  was  adopted  and  elaborated  by  H.  Winckler, 
who  was  followed  by  A.  Jeremias  and  some  others.5  Winckler 
attempts  to  show  that  a  single  religion  existed  in  the  ancient  Ori- 
ental world  (with  a  single  system  of  myths),  and  that  this  was 
dominated  by  the  conception  that  there  was  a  correspondence  be- 
tween the  heavenly  world  and  the  lower  world  in  such  wise  that 
all  earthly  affairs  were  indicated  by  the  movements  of  the  heavenly 
bodies,  whence  arose  the  whole  religious  system  of  Western  Asia 
and  Greece. 

867.  What  is  true  in  this  theory  (to  which  the  name  of  "  Pan- 
babylonianism  "  has  been  given)  is  that  Semitic  mythology  is  a 
unit,  with  Babylonia  as  its  birthplace,  and  that  certain  elements  are 
common  to  the  Egyptian,  Semitic,  Greek,  and  other  mythological 
systems.  The  substantial  identity  of  Babylonian,  Aramean  <  Syrian), 
and  Canaanite  myths  is  generally  acknowledged:6  the  Old  Testa- 
ment dragon-myth  (which  occurs  also  in  the  New  Testament 
Apocalypse)  is  found  in  full  shape  only  in  Babylonian  material ; 7 

1  Op.  cit.,  §  864.  Cf.  article  "  Panbabylonianism  "  in  Harvard  Theological  Review 
for  January,  19 10. 

2  Astralmythen  der  Hebrdcr,  Baby  lonxer  und  Aegypter  ( 1 896- 1  -   ) 

3  So  in  folk-tales  the  same  motif  appears  in  a  hundred  different  settings :  but  this 
is  not  necessarily  a  sign  of  borrowing.  *  Op.  cit..  p.  190. 

5  See  above.  §  826,  note.  '   No  well-defined  Arabian  myths  are  known. 

7  Most  of  the  Old  Testament  mythical  material  has  been  worked  over  by  Hebrew 
monotheistic  editors. 


386     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  Syrian  Adonis  myth  is  at  bottom  the  Babylonian  story  of 
Tammuz  and  Ishtar.  The  probability  is  that  all  early  Semitic 
schemes  of  creation  and  prehistoric  life  are  essentially  one.  Further, 
such  conceptions  as  the  origin  of  the  world  from  an  unshaped  mass 
of  matter  and  the  origin  of  man  from  the  earth  are  widely  dis- 
tributed over  the  earth. 

868.  Babylonia,  then,  is  the  chief  mythopceic  center  for  the 
Semitic  region,  but  we  are  not  warranted  in  extending  its  influence 
as  myth-maker  beyond  this  region.  The  myths  of  the  Indo-Euro- 
pean peoples  have  in  general  the  stamp  of  independent  creation. 
Loans  there  may  be  (as,  for  example,  in  the  myths  connected 
with  Aphrodite  and  Heracles,  and  perhaps  others),  but  these  do 
not  affect  the  character  of  the  whole.  The  relation  between  the 
Semitic  and  the  Egyptian  mythologies  is  still  under  discussion. 

869.  The  astral  element  of  the  theory,  based  on  arbitrary  paral- 
lelisms carried  out  without  regard  to  historical  conditions,  is  an 
unauthorized  extension  of  the  generally  accepted  fact  that  certain 
myths  are  astral.  Winckler's  assumption  of  an  astral  "  system  " 
that  obtained  throughout  the  Western  world  is  supported  only  by 
unproved  assertions  of  the  sort  just  referred  to. 

870.  Jensen's  contention  that  all  myths  come  from  the  Baby- 
lonian Gilgamesh  story  1  exhibits  the  same  general  method  as  the 
theories  of  Stucken  and  Winckler  (giving  assertion  in  place  of  proof), 
differing  from  them  only  in  the  material  of  comparisons. 

871.  The  fundamental  vice  of  these  theories  (apart  from  the 
arbitrary  character  of  the  assertions  made  by  their  authors)  is  the 
failure  to  take  into  account  the  historical  development  of  mythical 
conceptions,  their  beginnings  in  the  rudest  periods  of  human 
thought,  and  their  gradual  elaboration  and  distinct  formulation  in 
the  great  communities,  in  which  process,  along  with  the  varieties 
of  local  conditions,  certain  fundamental  resemblances  remain 
throughout.2 

872.  Besides  these  more  prominent  or  more  definitely  formu- 
lated theories  there  has  been  in  some  quarters  a  disposition  to 

1  P.  Jensen,  Das  Gilgamesch  Epos  in  der  Wcltliteratur. 

2  Cf.  article  "  Panbabvlonianism  "  cited  in  §  866,  note. 


MYTHS  387 

insist  too  strongly  on  lines  of  mythical  development  connected  with 
the  plant  world,  particularly  with  the  death  and  revival  of  vegeta- 
tion. All  that  we  know  of  the  history  of  mythical  material  among 
existing  savages  and  in  the  earliest  forms  of  belief  of  civilized 
nations  forbids  the  limitation  of  the  origin  of  myths  to  any  one 
department  of  nature  or  to  any  one  part  of  the  world.  Myths, 
like  gods,  may  be  composite :  of  this  nature,  probably,  are  some 
cosmogonic  histories,1  and  the  stories  of  Gilgamesh,  Heracles, 
Perseus,  and  many  others.  The  lines  of  origin  mentioned  above 
have,  naturally,  in  some  cases,  coalesced,  and  their  combination 
into  single  coherent  narratives  has  been  spread  over  long  periods 
of  time.  For  this  reason  there  is  always  need  of  detailed  investi- 
gations of  particular  myths  as  a  preparation  for  a  general  history 
of  mythology.2 

873.  Modern  critical  methods  in  the  interpretation  of  myths.  The 
treatment  of  myths  has  followed  the  general  course  of  the  develop- 
ment of  thought  in  the  world.  In  the  old  national  religions  they 
were  incorporated  in  the  substance  of  the  religious  beliefs.  The 
reformers  of  thought  either  ignored  them  (so,  for  example,  Con- 
fucius and  Buddha),  or  denounced  their  absurdities  (so  Plato  and 
others),  or  allegorized  or  rationalized  them  (so  many  Greek  phi- 
losophers) ;  the  early  Christian  writers  treated  Old  Testament 
myths  as  history,  and  ridiculed  the  myths  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
During  the  long  period  when  the  European  peoples  were  assimi- 
lating the  ideas  of  Christianity  the  study  of  myths  remained  in 
abeyance.  After  the  classical  revival  there  was  a  return  to  the 
allegorizing  method,  the  fondness  for  which  has  not  yet  completely 
died  out.3 

874.  The  extension  of  knowledge  in  the  eighteenth  century 
gave  an  impetus  to  the  study  of  religion,  the  results  of  which 
for  mythological  investigation  appear  in  the  works  of  Dupuis 
and   others.4    These  authors  were   necessarily  ignorant   of   many 


1  As,  for  example,  those  of  New  Zealand,  Babylonia,  and  Greece. 

2  Cf.  Keightley,  Fahy  Mythology,  2d  ed.,  p.  14  f. 

3  Bacon,  Wisdom  of  the  Ancients ;  in  Biblical  exposition  many  recent  writers. 

4  See  above,  §  864  ff. ;  cf.  Jastrow,  Study  of  Religion,  p.  2S  ff. 


388     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

important  facts,  but  they  have  the  merit  of  having  collected  much 
material,  which  they  treated  as  something  that  had  to  be  explained 
in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  human  thought. 

875.  The  turning-point  in  the  development  of  mythological 
science  was  the  rise  of  the  modern  critical  study  of  history,  begun 
by  Voltaire  and  Gibbon  and  carried  on  by  Niebuhr  and  others. 
A  vigorous  group  of  writers  arose  in  Germany.  Creuzer,1  indeed, 
holding  that  the  myths  of  the  ancients  must  embody  their  best 
thought,  and  falling  back  on  symbolism,  cannot  be  said  to  have 
advanced  his  subject  except  by  his  collection  of  materials ;  there 
is  some  basis  for  his  position  if  the  ancient  myths  are  taken  in  the 
sense  given  them  by  the  later  poets  and  philosophers,  but  the  sup- 
position of  a  primary  symbolism  in  myths  is  set  aside  by  an 
examination  of  the  ideas  of  undeveloped  races.  Creuzer's  theory 
was  effectively  combated  by  Voss.'2  Other  writers  of  the  time 
adopted  exacter  methods  of  inquiry,3  and  K.  O.  Miiller,4  particu- 
larly, laid  the  foundation  for  a  scientific  treatment  of  myths  by 
distinguishing  between  their  real  and  their  ideal  elements,  between 
the  actual  phenomenon  and  the  imaginative  (the  true  mythical) 
explanation  of  it. 

876.  The  next  generation  witnessed  two  retrograde  movements 
in  the  interpretation  of  myths.  F.  Max  Miiller,  dazzled  by  the 
wealth  of  Sanskrit  mythological  material,  revived  the  solar  theory, 
with  a  peculiar  appendage  ; 5  the  defects  of  his  theory  must  not 
blind  us  to  the  great  service  he  performed  in  arousing  interest  in 
the  comparative  study  of  myths  and  leading  the  way  to  a  formula- 
tion of  the  conception  of  the  general  history  of  religion.  On 
another  side  the  vast  accumulation  of  the  religious  ideas  and  usages 
of  lower  tribes  led  Herbert  Spencer  to  his  euhemeristic  view.6 
Neither  of  these  theories  has  seriously  affected  the  growth  of  the 
science  of  mythology. 

1  Symbolik  und  Mythologie  der  alien  Volkcr  (1810-1812). 

2  Antisymbolik  (1 824-1 826). 

3  Buttmann,  Welcker,  Lobeck,  and  others. 

4  Prolegomena  zu  ei7ier  ■wissenschafthchcn  Mythologie  (1825). 

5  See  above,  §  865. 

6  See  above,  §  359.    Cf.  Grant  Allen,  The  Evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God. 


MYTHS  389 

877.  A  saner  direction  was  given  to  investigation  by  the  great 
biological  and  sociological  studies  made  in  the  second  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century.1  E.  B.  Tylor  definitely  stated  the  view  that 
the  origin  of  myths  is  to  be  found  in  all  the  ideas  of  early  man. 
By  a  very  large  collection  of  facts  2  he  showed  that  the  same  rep- 
resentations that  are  familiar  in  Egyptian,  Semitic,  Hindu,  Greek, 
Roman,  and  other  ancient  myths  occur  also  in  the  systems  of  half- 
civilized  and  savage  communities ;  and  he  pointed  out  how  such 
representations  had  their  basis  in  the  simple  ideas  of  undeveloped 
men  and  how  their  survival  is  to  be  traced  through  all  periods  of 
history.  This  fruitful  view  has  been  illustrated  and  developed  by 
later  writers,3  and  much  light  has  been  thrown  on  the  genesis  and 
growth  of  myths  by  studies  of  existing  popular  customs  in  civilized 
communities.4 

878.  Interest  in  the  subject  has  now  become  general,  and  collec- 
tions of  material  are  being  made  all  over  the  world.5  At  the  same 
time  it  is  recognized  that  every  local  mass  of  myths  must  be  studied 
first  by  itself  and  then  in  connection  with  all  other  known  material, 
and  that  great  caution  must  be  exercised  in  dealing  with  questions 
of  origin,  transmission,  and  survival.  Archaeological  and  geograph- 
ical discoveries  have  widened  the  known  area  of  human  life  on 
earth ;  it  is  seen  that  the  history  of  man's  development  is  more 
complicated  than  was  formerly  supposed. 

879.  We  are  still  without  a  general  survey  of  myths  arranged 
in  some  orderly  fashion.6  The  material  for  such  a  collection  is 
scattered  through  a  great  number  of  publications,  in  which  the 
mythical  stories  are  not  always  treated  critically.  The  most  use- 
ful principle  of  tabulation,  perhaps,  would  be  an  arrangement  ac- 
cording to  motifs,  under  which  geographical  or  ethnological  and 

1  Darwin  and  Spencer  (evolution),  Bastian  (ethnology),  and  others. 

2  In  his  Early  History  of  Mankind  and  Primitive  Culture.  Cf.  C.  de  Brosses  (Du 
culte  dcs  dieux  fetiches ;  1760),  who  expressed  a  similar  view. 

3  A.  Lang,  Custom  and  Myth  and  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  and  other  works ; 
Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  and  3d  edd. ;  W.  R.  Smith.  Religion  of  the  Semites  ;  and 
others.  4  Mannhardt,  Wald-  und Feldkulte  and  MythologiscJie  Forsckungen. 

5  See  the  bibliography  at  the  end  of  this  book. 

6  Beginnings  for  such  a  survey  have  been  made  in  the  Teutonic,  American,  and 
some  other  areas. 


390     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

geographical  relations  might  be  noted.  At  the  present  time  it  would 
be  possible  only  to  make  a  beginning  in  such  a  work,  since  the 
obtainable  material  is  not  all  recorded,  and  the  complicated  charac- 
ter of  many  myths  makes  an  arrangement  by  place  and  motif 
difficult.  Still,  even  an  incomplete  digest  would  be  of  service  to 
students  of  mythology  and  would  pave  the  way  for  a  more  com- 
prehensive work.  The  importance  of  the  study  of  mythology  for 
the  general  history  of  religions  is  becoming  more  and  more  mani- 
fest. This  study,  in  its  full  form,  includes,  of  course,  psychological 
investigation  as  well  as  collections  of  statistics  ;  but  the  psychology 
finds  its  material  in  the  facts  —  we  must  first  know  what  men 
believe,  and  then  explain  why  they  believe. 

880.  It  must,  however,  be  added  that  myths  have  influenced 
mainly  the  dogmas  and  ceremonies  of  religion  —  their  part  in  more 
intimate  or  spiritual  worship,  the  converse  of  the  worshiper  with 
the  deity,  has  been  comparatively  slight.  Religious  ceremonies  are 
ordinary  social  customs  and  forms  transferred  to  dealings  with 
supernatural  Powers.  Dogmas  are  quasi-philosophical  expressions 
of  conceptions  concerning  the  nature  of  these  Powers  and  their 
relations  with  men,  and  sometimes  contain  mythical  material  which 
is  then  introduced  into  worship  ;  if,  for  example,  a  man  is  divinized 
and  worship  is  paid  him,  the  tone  of  the  worship  is  affected  by  the 
divine  character  thus  ascribed  to  him.  But  in  general,  as  men,  in 
worship  proper,  approach  a  deity  to  get  some  advantage  from  him, 
the  appeal  is  to  him  directly  without  regard  to  ceremonies  or 
minute  dogmas.  Savages,  though  in  theory  they  may  make  a  god 
to  be  an  animal  or  a  plant,  come  to  him  devoutly  as  a  superior 
being  who  can  grant  their  requests.  In  higher  religions  the  deity 
addressed  is  for  the  moment  an  omnipotent  friend  standing  apart 
from  the  stories  told  of  him.  Rival  sects  lose  sight  of  their  differ- 
ences in  the  presence  of  needs  that  drive  them  to  God  for  help. 
Prayer  is  a  religious  unifier  —  communion  with  the  Deity  is  an  in- 
dividual experience  in  which  all  men  stand  on  common  ground, 
where  ritual  and  dogmatic  accessories  tend  to  fade  or  to  disappear. 

881.  Long  after  myths  in  their  original  forms  have  ceased  to 
be  believed  they  persist  in  the  form  of  "  fairy  tales,"  which  retain 


MYTHS  391 

something  of  the  old  supernatural  framework,  but  sink  into  mere 
stories  for  amusement.1 

But  fairy  tales  are  not  the  only  form  in  which  ancient  myths 
persist.  Myths  have  played  their  prominent  part  in  the  history  of 
religion  for  the  reason  that  they  embody  the  conception  of  the 
tangible  supernatural  in  a  vivid  and  dramatic  way.  To  this  per- 
sonalization and  socialization  of  the  supernatural  men  have  con- 
tinued to  cling  up  to  the  present  time ;  the  mass  of  men  demand 
not  only  the  presence  of  the  supernatural  as  protection  and  guid- 
ance, but  also  the  realization  of  it  in  objective  form.  This  objec- 
tiveness  was  useful  and  necessary  in  early  times,  and  the  demand 
for  it  remains  in  periods  of  advanced  civilization.  In  the  reigning 
religions  of  the  world  at  the  present  day  myths  continue  to  hold 
their  place  and  to  exercise  their  influence,'2  the  more  that  in  the 
course  of  time  they  become  fused  with  the  constantly  advancing 
ethical  and  spiritual  thought  of  the  communities  in  which  they 
exist.  The  tendency  appears  to  be  to  minimize,  under  the  influence 
of  general  enlightenment,  the  crude  supernatural  parts  of  such 
combinations,  to  exalt  the  moral  and  spiritual,  and  to  allegorize  or 
rationalize  the  rest.  But  along  with  such  process  of  rationalization 
the  mythical  form  is  maintained  and  continues  to  be  a  powerful 
element  in  the  general  structure  of  religious  opinion  and  life. 

1  Confucianism,  if  it  can  be  called  a  religion,  is  an  exception. 

2  See  the  bibliographies  in  Johnson's  Universal  Cyclo/xedia,  article  "  Fairy-lore," 
and  La  Grande  Encyclopedic,  article  "  Fee  "  ;  Maury,  Croyances  et  legendes  du  moyen 
tigc,  new  ed. ;  Hartland,  The  Science  of  Fairy-talcs. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION 

882.  The  regulation  of  relations  with  the  superhuman  world 
has  been  attempted  by  means  of  friendly  social  intercourse  with 
supernatural  Powers,  and  by  studying  their  methods  of  procedure 
with  a  view  to  applying  these  methods  and  thereby  gaining  bene- 
ficial results.  Friendly  social  intercourse  is  practical  religion  in  the 
higher  sense  of  that  term.  The  application  and  use  of  superhuman 
procedures  takes  two  lines  of  action :  the  powers  of  superhuman 
agents  may  be  appropriated  and  used  independently  of  them,  or 
the  object  may  be  simply  to  discover  their  will  in  order  to  be 
guided  by  it.  The  first  of  these  lines  is  magic,  the  second  is 
divination.  While  the  two  have  in  common  the  frank  and  inde- 
pendent employment  of  the  supernatural  for  the  bettering  of 
human  life,  their  conceptions  and  modes  of  procedure  differ  in 
certain  respects,  and  they  may  be  considered  separately. 

Magic  x 

883.  The  perils  and  problems  of  savage  life,  more  acute  in 
certain  directions  than  those  that  confront  the  civilized  man,  de- 
mand constant  vigilance,  careful  investigation,  and  prompt  action. 
So  far  as  familiar  and  tangible  enemies  (beasts  and  men)  are  con- 
cerned, common  sense  has  devised  methods  of  defense,  and  ordi- 
nary prudence  has  suggested  means  of  providing  against  excessive 
heat  or  cold  and  of  procuring  food.    But  there  are  dangers  and 

1  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  Index,  s.v.  Magic;  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed., 
Index,  do.  ;  id.,  Early  History  of  the  Kingship,  Index,  do. ;  Hobhouse,  Morals  in 
Evolution,  Index,  do. ;  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas, 
Index,  do.;  S.  Reinach,  Orpheus,  Index,  do.  ;  Hubert  and  Mauss,  in  An?iee  sociolo- 
gique,  vii ;  Marett,  Threshold  of  Religion  ;  articles  "  Magie  "  in  La  Grande  Encyclo- 
pedic and  ''Magic"  in  Encyclopcedia  Britannica,  nth  ed. ;  article  "  Magia"  in 
Daremberg  and  Saglio,  Dictionnaire  des  antiquites  grecques  et  romaines. 

392 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  393 

ills  that  in  the  savage  view  cannot  be  referred  to  such  sources, 
but  must  be  held  to  be  caused  by  intangible,  invisible  forces  in 
the  world,  against  which  it  is  man's  business  to  guard  himself. 
He  must  learn  what  they  are  and  how  to  thwart  or  use  them  as 
circumstances  may  require.  They  could  be  studied  only  in  their 
deeds,  and  this  study  involves  man  in  the  investigation  of  the  law 
of  cause  and  effect.  The  only  visible  bond  between  phenomena  is 
that  of  sequence,  and  on  sequence  the  savage  bases  his  science 
of  causes  —  that  which  precedes  is  cause,  that  which  follows  is 
effect.  The  agencies  he  recognizes  are  spirits,  gods,  the  force 
resident  in  things  (mana),  and  human  beings  who  are  able  to  use 
this  force. 

884.  But  belief  in  such  agencies  would  be  useless  to  man  unless 
he  also  believed  that  he  could  somehow  determine  their  actions, 
and  belief  in  the  possibility  of  determining  these  appears  to  have 
come  to  him  through  his  theory  of  natural  law.  The  reasoning  of 
savages  on  this  point  has  not  been  recorded  by  them,  but  the 
character  of  their  known  procedures  leads  us  to  suppose  that  they 
have  a  sense  of  a  law  governing  the  actions  of  superhuman 
Powers.  Being  conscious  that  they  themselves  are  governed  by 
law,  they  may  naturally  in  imagination  transfer  this  order  of  things 
to  the  whole  invisible  world  ;  spirits,  gods,  and  the  mana-power, 
it  is  assumed,  work  on  lines  similar  to  those  followed  by  man,  only 
with  superhuman  breadth  and  force.  The  task  before  the  orig- 
inators of  society  was  to  discover  these  modes  of  procedure  in 
order  to  act  in  accordance  with  them.  The  discovery  was  made 
gradually  by  observation,  and  there  grew  up  thus  in  process  of 
time  a  science  of  supernatural  procedure  which  is  the  basis  of  the 
practice  of  magic. 

This  science  does  not  necessarily  regard  the  superhuman  power 
as  purposely  antagonistic  to  man.  Rather  its  native  attitude  ap- 
pears to  have  been  conceived  of  as  one  of  indifference  (as  nature 
is  now  regarded  as  careless  of  man)  ;  it  was  and  is  thought  of  as  a 
force  to  be  guarded  against  and  utilized  by  available  means,  which, 
of  course,  were  and  are  such  as  are  proper  to  an  undeveloped 
stage  of  social  growth. 


394     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

885.  Magic  is  a  science  of  sequences,  but  only  of  sequences 
supposed  not  to  be  explicable  from  ordinary  experience.  When 
the  savage  puts  his  hand  into  the  fire  or  receives  a  spear-thrust 
in  his  body  he  recognizes  visible  and  familiar  causes  of  pain,  and 
accepts  the  situation  as  a  fact  of  life,  calling  for  no  further  ex- 
planation. But  when  the  pain  comes  from  no  familiar  tangible 
source  he  is  driven  to  seek  a  different  sort  of  source.  A  cause 
there  must  be,  and  this  cause,  though  superhuman,  must  follow 
definite  methods  —  it  must  have  the  will  to  act,  and  it  must  have 
knowledge  and  skill  to  carry  out  its  designs.  To  discover  its 
methods  man  must  observe  the  processes  of  nature  and  imitate 
them,  and  must  at  the  same  time  have  in  mind  familiar  human 
modes  of  action.  The  savage  scientific  explanation  of  mysterious 
facts  is  that  superhuman  Powers  are  intellectually  akin  to  human 
beings ;  the  question  of  motive  in  such  Powers  (except  in  the  case 
of  developed  gods)  seems  not  to  be  considered.  The  basis  of 
magical  procedure  is  imitation  of  nature  and  of  man.  This  prin- 
ciple is  supplemented  by  the  conception  of  the  unity  of  the  world, 
a  feeling  at  first  vague,  that  all  things  have  the  same  nature  and 
are  bound  together  in  a  cosmos ;  animals  and  men,  trees,  stones 
and  waters,  and  fragments  of  all  these  are  parts  of  one  great 
whole,  and  each  feels,  so  to  speak,  what  is  done  to  or  by  one  of 
the  others.  This  feeling,  derived  from  observation  and  reflection, 
is  not  formulated,  but  is  influential  in  the  construction  of  the 
unconscious  philosophy  of  the  savage. 

886.  The  methods  of  man's  magical  procedure  follow  these 
principles ;  they  are  as  various  as  the  sequences  that  savage  man 
thinks  he  observes.1  Many  of  them  are  suggested  by  natural 
phenomena.  Since  rain  was  observed  to  fall  from  the  sky,  it  was 
held  that  in  time  of  drought  it  might  be  obtained  by  casting  water 
into  the  air  and  letting  it  fall,  or  by  dipping  a  stone  in  water  and 
letting  it  drip ;  in  general,  by  any  process  in  which  water  falls  on 
the  ground.  The  wind  might  be  raised  by  ejecting  air  from  the 
mouth  (as  by  whistling).  Or  ordinary  human  actions  might  be 
imitated :   a   stick   thrown   or   pointed   toward   an   enemy,  it  was 

1  Examples  are  cited  in  the  works  mentioned  above. 


MAGIC  AND  PI VI NATION 


395 


believed,  would  cause  a  spear  to  enter  his  body  ; l  a  hostile  glance 
of  the  eye,  indicating  desire  to  inflict  injur}',  might  carry  ill  luck.'2 
In  such  cases  the  fundamental  conceptions  are  the  sympathy  that 
comes  from  unity  and  the  activity  of  the  pervasive  mana.  These 
conceptions  are  visible  in  procedures  in  which  action  on  a  part  of 
the  human  body,  or  on  an  image  or  picture  of  it,  was  supposed  to 
reach  the  body  itself.  The  possession  of  a  piece  of  the  bone,  skin, 
hair,  or  nail  of  a  man  might  enable  one  who  had  knowledge  of 
superhuman  laws  and  processes  to  affect  the  man  with  sickness 
or  even  to  cause  his  death.  Contact  of  objects  naturally  suggests 
their  unity,  but  the  sympathy  between  them  was  not  held  to  be 
dependent  on  contact ;  a  man's  bone  remained  a  part  of  him, 
however  far  it  might  be  separated  from  him.  A  dead  body  did 
not  lose  its  virtues  ;  the  qualities  of  a  dead  warrior  might  be 
acquired  by  eating  his  flesh.  The  mysterious  unity  of  things 
seems  to  have  resided,  in  savage  thought,  in  the  omnipresent 
mana,  a  force  independent  of  human  limitations.  Not  that  there 
was  a  definite  theory  on  the  subject,  but  something  of  this  sort 
seems  to  be  assumed  in  the  ideas  and  usages  of  many  low  tribes.3 

On  the  other  hand,  a  magical  effect  may  be  set  aside  by  magic. 
A  sick  man,  believing  his  sickness  to  be  the  work  of  a  magician 
(the  usual  savage  theory  of  the  cause  of  bodily  ills),  sends  for 
another  magician  to  counteract  the  evil  work ;  and  a  magician, 
failing  to  cure  his  patient,  ascribes  his  failure  to  the  machinations 
of  a  powerful  rival.  In  all  such  cases  the  theory  and  the  methods 
are  the  same  ;  the  magic  that  cures  is  not  different  in  principle 
(though  it  may  differ  in  details)  from  the  magic  that  kills. 

887.  The  facts  observed  by  practicers  of  magic  probably  contrib- 
uted to  the  collections  of  material  that  furnished  the  starting-point 

1  On  the  view  that  many  quasi-magical  acts  are  spontaneous  reactions  of  the  man 
to  his  environment  see  I.  King,  Development  of  Religion,  chap.  vii.  According  to  this 
view  the  thought  suggests  the  act.  The  warrior,  thinking  of  his  enemy,  instinctively 
makes  the  motion  of  hurling  something  at  him  (as  a  modern  man  shakes  his  fist  at 
an  absent  foe),  and  such  an  act,  a  part  of  the  excitation  to  combat,  is  believed  to  be 
efficacious. 

2  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  s.v.  The  Evil  Eye. 

3  On  mana  see  above,  §  231  ff.  Though  the  theory  of  mana  was  necessarily  vague, 
the  thing  itself  was  quite  definite. 


396     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIOXS 

for  the  scientific  study  of  physical  phenomena.  The  interest  in  the 
facts  arose  at  first  simply  from  their  relation  to  magical  procedure 
—  it  was  from  them  that  certain  laws  of  supernatural  action  were 
learned,  and  men  thus  got  control  of  this  action.  Magic  is  essen- 
tially a  directive  or  coercive  procedure  and  differs  in  this  respect 
from  fully  formed  religion,  which  is  essentially  submissive  and 
obedient. 

888.  It  is  true  that  coercion  of  divine  beings  appears  in  well- 
developed  religions.  A  Babylonian  goddess  (Nana)  was  carried  off 
by  the  Elamites  to  their  land  that  she  might  there  do  duty  as  divine 
protector;  restored  to  her  proper  home  1635  years  later,  she  re- 
sumed her  old  functions.1  The  Egyptians  are  said  by  Plutarch  to 
have  slain  their  divine  animals  if  these  failed  to  avert  or  remove 
calamity.2  Prometheus  and  certain  Homeric  heroes  are  victorious 
over  gods.  In  some  savage  tribes  divine  kings  are  put  to  death  if 
they  fail  to  do  what  is  expected  of  them.  A  god  was  sometimes 
chained  or  confined  in  his  temple  to  prevent  his  voluntary  or  con- 
strained departure.  A  recusant  deity  was  sometimes  taunted  or 
insulted  by  his  disappointed  worshipers.3  There  is,  however,  a  dif- 
ference between  the  two  sets  of  coercive  acts.  The  force  used  by 
developed  religion  is  physical,  that  employed  in  magic  is  psycho- 
logical and  logical.  When  a  god  is  chained  or  carried  off,  it  is  only 
his  body  that  is  controlled  —  he  is  left  to  his  own  thoughts,  or  it  is 
assumed  that  he  will  be  friendly  to  his  enforced  locus.  Magic  brings 
the  supernatural  Power  under  the  dominion  of  law  against  which 
his  nature  is  powerless.  Religion,  even  when  it  employs  force,  rec- 
ognizes the  protective  function  of  the  deity  ;  magic  is  without  such 
acknowledgment,  without  emotion  or  worship.  While  it  has,  on 
one  side,  a  profounder  conception  of  cosmic  force  than  appears  in 
early  religion,  it  is,  on  the  social  side,  vastly  inferior  to  the  latter, 
to  which  it  has  necessarily  yielded  in  the  course  of  human  progress. 
Nevertheless,  if  religion  in  the  broadest  sense  includes  all  means 
of  bringing  man  into  helpful  relations  with  the  supernatural  world, 
then  magic  is  a  form  of  religion. 

1  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  85.  2  I  sis  and  Osiris,  73. 

3  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  i,  154  ff. 


MAGIC  .LXD    nillXATION 


397 


889.  The  much-discussed  question  whether  magic  was  the  earliest 
form  of  religion  is  not  susceptible  of  a  definite  answer  for  the  reason 
that  we  have  no  account  of  man's  earliest  conceptions  of  his  rela- 
tions with  the  world  of  invisible  forces.  There  is  some  reason  to 
hold,  as  is  remarked  above,1  that  in  the  lowest  stage  of  life  known 
to  us  men  were  logically  indifferent  spectators  of  the  world,  but  in 
general  stood  in  awe  of  phenomena,  so  that  fear  was  their  prevailing 
feeling.  It  may  be  surmised  that  this  feeling  would  engender  a 
sense  of  antagonism  to  such  superhuman  Powers  as  came  to  be 
conceived  of,  on  which  would  naturally  follow  a  desire  to  get  con- 
trol of  them.  Yet  it  is  impossible  to  say  at  what  stage  of  social 
development  the  necessity  would  be  felt  of  establishing  friendly 
relations  with  the  Powers.  The  two  lines  of  effort  may  have  begun 
and  gone  on  side  by  side,  the  two  springing  from  the  same  utilitarian 
impulse,  but  each  independent  of  the  other  —  a  coexistence  that 
actually  appears  in  many  tribes  ;  finally  the  coercive  effort  tends 
to  yield  to  the  kindly  influences  of  organized  society.  There  is  no 
ground  for  calling  magic  a  "  disease  of  religion."  The  presumption, 
from  the  general  law  of  progress,  is  that,  when  there  is  a  chrono- 
logical difference,  the  socially  lower  precedes  the  socially  higher. 
Religion  and  magic  come  to  be  mutually  antagonistic,  except  in 
cases  where  religious  authorities  adopt  magical  procedures,  giving 
them  a  theistic  and  socially  useful  coloring.  Magic  has  been  a  natu- 
ral, if  not  a  necessary,  step  in  the  religious  organization  of  society.2 
890.  Since  religion  and  magic  have  in  common  the  purpose  to 
establish  relations  with  extrahuman  Powers  the  dividing  line  be- 
tween the  two  is  in  some  cases  not  easily  fixed  —  the  same  pro- 
cedure may  be  held  to  belong  in  the  one  category  or  the  other, 
according  as  it  invokes  or  does  not  invoke  the  aid  of  a  god  in 
friendly  and  submissive  fashion.  We  may  thus  be  carried  back  to 
a  time  when  a  sharp  distinction  between  the  two  did  not  exist,  as 
there  was  a  time  when  such  a  distinction  is  not  visible  between 
"  gods  "  (friendly  divine  members  of  the  human  community)  and 
"  demons  "  (unfriendly  outside  beings),  both  classes  being  regarded 
simply  as  agents  affecting  human  life.   Even  when  some  fairly  good 

1  §  6  f .  2  Cf.  Lord  Avebury,  Marriage^  Tolemism,  and  Religion^  p.  i  55. 


398     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

form  of  organization  has  been  reached  it  is  often  hard  to  say  to 
which  class  a  particular  figure  belongs.  The  Hawaiian  Pele  (the 
"  goddess  "  of  the  great  and  dangerous  volcano)  is  often  vindictive, 
and  then  differs  little  or  not  at  all  from  a  demon  that  sends  sickness 
and  death.1  The  Babylonians  gave  the  same  name  {shedu)  to  a 
class  of  demons  proper  and  to  the  divine  or  half-divine  winged 
beings  (to  which,  apparently,  the  Hebrew  cherubs  are  allied)  that 
guarded  the  entrances  to  temples,  sacred  gardens,  and  palaces.2 
The  Navaho  beings  called  yet  and  anaye  seem  to  hover  on  the 
border  line  between  the  divine  and  the  demonic  classes.3  The  dif- 
ference between  the  two  seems  to  be  merely  that  the  one  class 
(the  gods)  has  been  adopted  (for  reasons  not  originally  ethical) 
into  the  human  community,  while  the  other  has  not  received  such 
adoption.4  In  such  a  case  a  given  figure  may  easily  pass  from  one 
class  into  the  other.  According  to  the  Thompson  River  folk-lore 
the  sun  was  once  a  cannibal  but  became  beneficent.5  The  early 
Christians  converted  the  Graeco-Roman  gods  (daimonia)  into 
"  demons."  6  There  being  this  fluid  relation  between  supernatural 
beings,  it  is  not  strange  that  such  a  relation  should  exist  between 
procedures  intended  to  act  on  them.7 

891.  Magic,  as  we  have  seen,  is  based  on  the  observation  of 
sequences,  and  before  the  development  of  reflection  and  the  acqui- 
sition of  a  knowledge  of  natural  law  the  disposition  of  human  beings 
is  to  regard  all  sequences  as  exhibiting  the  relation  of  cause  and 
effect.  A  typical  example  is  that  of  the  anchor  driven  ashore,  a 
piece  of  which  was  broken  off  by  a  man  who  died  soon  after ;  the 
conclusion  was  that  the  anchor  caused  his  death  and  therefore  was 
divine,  and  accordingly  it  received  religious  worship.8  In  the  course 

1  Alexander,  Short  History  of  the  Hawaiian  People. 

2  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  263. 

3  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends,  p.  36. 

4  Cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  lecture  iii. 

5  Teit,  Thompson  River  Indians,  p.  53  f.  6  1  Cor.  x,  20  f. 

7  Certain  ceremonies  of  the  higher  religions  produce  effects  that  must  be  re- 
garded as  magical. 

8  Lubbock,  Origin  of  Civilization,  p.  1S8.  Similar  logic  appears  in  the  story  of  the 
origin  of  Goodwin  Sands,  told  by  Bishop  Latimer  (in  a  sermon  preached  before 
Edward  VI).   An  old  man,  being  asked  what  he  thought  was  the  cause  of  the  Sands, 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  399 

of  ages  thousands  of  such  sequences  must  have  been  observed, 
and  these,  handed  down  from  one  generation  to  another,  would 
shape  themselves  into  a  handbook  of  magic.  They  would,  however, 
be  constantly  reexamined  and  sifted  under  the  guidance  of  wider 
experience  and  a  better  acquaintance  with  natural  causes,  and  this 
process,  carried  on  by  experts,  would  give  rise  to  the  science  of 
magic  as  we  find  it  among  lower  tribes. 

Magic,  like  religion,  is  a  social  product.  The  two,  as  is  remarked 
above,  may  coexist  in  the  same  community.  But  when  a  State  re- 
ligion is  established  to  which  all  citizens  are  expected  to  conform, 
the  pursuit  of  magic  assumes  the  aspect  of  departure  from,  and 
hostility  to,  the  tribal  or  national  cult.  It  is  then  under  the  ban, 
and  can  be  carried  on  only  in  secret l  (as  is  the  case  with  prohibited 
religions  also).  Secrecy  of  practice  is  not  of  the  essence  of  magic ; 
among  the  Australian  Arunta,  for  example,  magical  ceremonies 
constitute  the  publicly  recognized  business  of  the  community  act- 
ing through  its  accredited  representatives ;  the  partial  exclusion  of 
women  and  uninitiated  boys  from  these  ceremonies  (and  from 
political  councils)  is  due  mainly  to  the  desire  of  the  elders  to  keep 
the  power  in  their  own  hands.  The  State  religion  may  sometimes 
be  forced  by  public  opinion  to  adopt  particular  magical  procedures. 

892.  It  was  natural  that  the  specific  study  of  sequences  and 
laws  should  fall  into  the  hands  of  special  persons  and  classes  of 
men.  The  human  agent  in  the  discovery  of  laws  is  the  magician 
(sorcerer,  shaman),  who,  since  he  was  generally  a  physician  also, 
sometimes  received  the  name  of  "  medicine  man."  As  the  office 
of  chief  arose  for  the  direction  of  social  culture  and  political  affairs, 
so  the  office  of  magician  arose  naturally  for  the  direction  of  super- 
natural relations.  He  may  have  been  the  earliest  religious  teacher 
and  guide.'2  He  knows  the  will  and  nature  of  the  supernatural 
Powers  and  is  therefore  a  necessity  to  men.  He  is  specifically  in 
charge  of  all  that  relates  to  the  control  of  these  Powers. 

replied  that  he  had  lived  near  there,  man  and  boy,  fourscore  years,  and  before  the 
neighboring  steeple  was  built  there  was  no  Sands,  and  therefore  his  opinion  was 
that  the  steeple  was  the  cause  of  the  Sands. 

1  So  among  the  old  Hebrews,  according  to  1  Sam.  xxviii,  9.  For  Rome  cf.  Fowler, 
Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People^  lecture  iii.  -  Cf.  above,  §  8S9. 


400     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

893.  In  the  course  of  time  there  arises  a  differentiation  of  func- 
tions, and,  when  religion  becomes  friendly,  the  office  of  priest  is 
created.  The  priest,  like  the  magician,  understands  the  will  of  the 
gods,  but  his  procedure  is  intended  simply  to  propitiate  them  or  to 
discover  their  will  in  particular  cases.1  He  is  a  development  out 
of  the  magician  in  so  far  as  friendly  religion  is  a  development  out  of 
magical  religion.2  The  prophet  also,  in  the  role  in  which  he  appears 
among  the  Greeks,  is  a  development  out  of  the  old  magician  ;  he 
knows  the  will  of  the  gods  and  is  thus  able  to  predict  events.  This 
is  the  character  of  the  old  Hebrew  seer;  the  Hebrew  prophet, 
originally  a  seer,  assumed  in  the  course  of  time  a  quite  different 
character  —  he  became  a  preacher  of  ethical  religion. 

894.  The  office  of  magician,  once  established,  became  subject 
to  all  the  rules  that  govern  official  persons  in  barbarous,  half- 
civilized,  and  civilized  societies.  Of  the  way  in  which  the  position 
was  attained  in  the  earliest  times  we  have  no  information,  but  in 
relatively  low  tribes  it  appears  that  it  is  attained  in  various  ways. 
There  is  sometimes  a  suggestion  of  vocation  in  a  dream  or  a 
vision.3  Among  some  tribes  a  candidate  for  the  office  has  to 
undergo  a  process  of  education,  that  is,  of  training  in  the  signs 
by  which  the  presence  of  superhuman  Powers  is  recognizable  and 
of  the  way  of  dealing  with  disease  and  other  evils.4  It  is  not  un- 
usual that  the  candidate  is  required  to  submit  to  a  test,  some- 
times of  physical  endurance  (as  is  required  also  in  the  case  of  the 
young  warrior),  but  chiefly  of  susceptibility  to  supernatural  influ- 
ences and  capacity  of  insight,  and  of  the  conduct  of  magical  opera- 
tions.5 Generally  in  the  lower  tribes  the  office  comes  by  free 
choice  of  the  individual,  or  by  choice  of  the  body  of  magicians, 
without  regard  to  the  social  position  of  the  man.    In  West  Africa, 


1  In  some  cases  the  priest  is  a  magician  (Grey,  Polynesian  Mythology,  p.  1 14  ff.)  — 
he  acts  as  the  mouthpiece  of  a  god,  and  in  sympathy  with  the  god.  Cf.  Wester- 
marck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  ii,  658.  On  a  connection  between 
the  magician  and  the  poet  see  Goldziher,  in  Proceedings  of  the  Tenth  International 
Congress  of  Orientalists.  ~  Cf.  above,  §  889. 

3  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  267  f. ;  id.,  The  Shasta,  471  ff. 

4  Ellis,  Tshi,  p.  120. 

5  Dixon,  The  Shasta,  loc.  cit. ;  Miss  Fletcher,  Indian  Ceremonies,  p.  2S0. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  40 1 

says  Miss  Kingsley,  everybody  keeps  a  familiar  spirit  or  two 
for  magical  purposes;  this  is  unlawful  only  when  the  spirit  is 
harmful.1 

895.  In  somewhat  more  advanced  societies  the  office  falls  into 
the  hands  of  families  and  descends  from  father  to  son,  in  which 
case  the  younger  man  is  instructed  by  the  older  in  the  secrets  of 
the  profession.2  In  some  higher  religions  magical  performances 
are  in  the  hands  of  certain  clans  or  tribes.  In  most  of  these  cases 
women  as  well  as  men  may  be  masters  of  the  art.  In  the  more 
advanced  systems  it  is  often  the  case  that  it  is  especially  women 
who  are  considered  adepts ;  so  it  was  in  Babylonia ; 3  in  the  Old 
Testament  Saul  seeks  the  woman  of  Endor ; 4  Thessalian  witches 
were  famous  ; 5  women  who  tie  magical  knots  are  provided  against 
in  the  Koran  by  a  special  form  of  prayer ; 6  in  Europe,  medieval 
and  later,  the  practicers  of  magic  have  generally  been  women. 

896.  The  grounds  for  the  ascription  of  magical  superiority  to 
women  —  whether  from  their  supposed  greater  susceptibility  to 
demoniac  influence,  or  for  some  other  reason  —  are  not  clear. 
In  the  lowest  tribes  sorcerers  are  commonly  men  7  —  the  profes- 
sion is  an  influential  and  honored  one,  and  naturally  falls  into  the 
hands  of  leading  men;  the  magician  is  often  the  most  powerful 
man  in  the  community. 

897.  Reputation  for  magical  power  appears  sometimes  to  attach 
to  a  tribe  or  other  body  of  persons  as  the  representatives  of  a 
religion  which  is  adopted  by  a  lower  community.  Possibly  this 
is  the  explanation  of  the  role  ascribed  at  an  early  period  to  the 
Mazdean  Magi.8  The  Magi  (apparently  Median  of  origin)  formed 
the  priestly  tribe  of  the  Mazdean  religion,  and  we  do  not  know 
that  they  played  originally  any  part  as  sorcerers.    But  it  seems 

1  M.  Kingsley,  Studies,  p.  136.  2  Grey,  Polynesian  Mythology,  p.  278. 

3  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  267  f.  4  1  Sam.  xxviii. 

5  Apuleius,  Metamorphoses,  bk.  ii  f.  6  Sura  cxiii. 

"  Women,  however,  are  sometimes  shamans  in  such  tribes,  as  in  the  California 
Shasta  (while  in  the  neighboring  Maidu  they  are  commonly  men).  See  Dixon,  The 
Shasta,  p.  471  ;    The  Northern  Maidu,  p.  267  f. 

8  Tiele,  Elements  of  the  Science  of  Religion,  ii,  140  ;  cf.  Spiegel.  Eramsche  Alter- 
thumskundc,  iii,  564  f.,  587  f.;  Jackson,  in  Geiger  and  Kuhn's  Grundriss  der  iranischen 
Philologie,  ii,  630,  671,  692. 


402     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

that  they  were  so  considered  in  Greece  as  early  as  the  fifth 
century  B.C.,1  and  after  the  Moslem  conquest  of  Persia  and  the 
suppression  of  Zoroastrianism  a  fire-worshiper  or  Magian  is  espe- 
cially a  representative  of  magic.'2  On  the  other  hand,  it  some- 
times happens  among  adjoining  tribes  that  the  lower  become  the 
special  practitioners  of  magic,3  which  is  then  considered  to  be  a 
mysterious  art,  alien  to  the  official  religion,  and  therefore  proper 
to  the  ministers  of  the  old  mysterious  cults. 

898.  The  power  exercised  by  the  magician  extends  over  the 
whole  world  of  men  and  things,  and  is  generally  considered  to 
be  practically  without  limit.  He  guards  men  against  diseases, 
noxious  beasts,  and  all  other  forms  of  injury ;  he  destroys  one's 
enemies  and  guards  one  against  plots  of  enemies,  including  other 
magicians ;  he  is  able  to  induce  or  destroy  love,  to  give  physical 
strength,  to  inflict  disease,  to  kill,  and  to  restore  to  life  ;  he  ascends 
to  heaven  or  descends  into  the  world  below ;  he  is  able  to  coerce 
the  gods  themselves;  in  fact,  he  does  everything  that  a  god  is 
commonly  supposed  to  do  —  the  tendency  was  to  identify  the 
magician  and  the  god.4  Such  identification  is  natural  or  necessary 
in  early  faiths,  inasmuch  as  it  was  held  that  there  was  no  differ- 
ence of  nature  between  men  and  gods.  A  god  was  as  a  rule  the 
stronger.  But  how  gods  arose  and  how  they  gained  their  superior 
strength  was  not  clear,  and  it  might  thus  easily  happen  that  a 
man  should  acquire  powers  equal  to  those  of  divine  beings.5 

1  Sophocles,  (Edipus  Tyrannies,  387;  Euripides,  Orestes,  1498.  Hence  the  term 
'  magic'  as  the  designation  of  a  certain  form  of  procedure. 

2  So  in  the  Thousand  and  One  Nights,  passim. 

3  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  113  ff. ;  Castren,  Finnische  Mythologie,  pp.  186  ff.,  229  ; 
Skeat,  Malay  Magic,  p.  162  ;  Rivers,  The  Todas,  p.  263  ;  Crooke,  Popular  Religion 
and  Folklore  of  Northern  India,  ii,  283  ff.  For  modern  usages  see  Wuttke,  Der 
deutsche  Volksabcrglaube  der  Gcgcmvart,  2d  ed.,  pp.  131,  241. 

4  A  magician,  as  a  man  of  special  social  prominence  and  of  extraordinary  power 
over  the  forces  of  the  world,  becomes,  in  some  cases,  the  political  head  of  his  com- 
munity (as  a  priest  sometimes  has  a  like  position).  Where  the  divinization  of  men  is 
practiced,  the  magician  may  be  recognized  as  a  god.  But  no  general  rule  can  be  laid 
down.  The  office  of  king  had  its  own  political  development,  and  a  god  was  the  nat- 
ural product  of  the  reflection  of  a  community.  The  elevation  of  the  magician  to  high 
political  or  ecclesiastical  position  was  dependent  on  peculiar  circumstances  and  may 
be  called  sporadic.    Cf.  Frazer,  Early  History  of  the  Kingship,  p.  107  ff.  and  lecture  v. 

5  Cf.  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  Index,  s.v.  Kings, 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  403 

899.  The  methods  employed  by  the  magician  to  effect  his  pur- 
pose are  various.  In  early  times  it  is  usual  for  him  to  fall  into 
an  ecstatic  state  ;  by  drinking  intoxicating  liquors,  by  violent  move- 
ments, or  by  contemplation  he  gets  out  of  himself  and  comes  into 
relations  with  the  mysterious  potencies.  In  such  a  condition  he 
acts  as  his  imagination  suggests.1  But  in  the  organized  forms  of 
magic  long  experience  has  devised  various  means  of  producing 
results  beyond  the  power  of  ordinary  men.  Certain  objects  are 
magically  charged  with  supernatural  power  (charms),  and  these 
worn  on  the  person  guard  the  possessor  against  malign  influences. 
Various  formulas  are  employed  which  are  supposed  to  coerce  the 
Powers ;  these  are  sometimes  names  of  ordinary  objects  regarded 
as  sacred,  the  name  of  some  plant  or  animal.2  Names  of  divine 
persons  have  special  potency.  The  name  of  a  god  was  supposed 
to  carry  with  it  his  power,  and  the  utterance  of  his  name  secured 
all  that  he  could  secure  ;  thus,  in  the  early  Christian  times  the  tetra- 
grammaton  YH WH  (Yahweh)  had  absolute  power  against  demons. 

900.  Similar  efficacy  attached  to  sacred  compositions,  prayers,3 
and  the  like.  The  Mazdean  petition,  Honover  (Ahuna-Vairya), 
was  so  employed,  and  in  Christian  circles  even  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Charms  or  incantations  often  took  rhythmical  form  —  verses, 
couplets,  or  quatrains  were  widely  used.  All  such  methods  were 
the  product  of  ages  of  experience.4  They  were  handed  down  from 
generation  to  generation,  often  in  families  or  classes  of  magicians, 
were  modified  or  enlarged  from  time  to  time,  and  thus  came  at 
last  to  form  a  literature. 

901.  In  the  great  civilized  religions  magical  practice  gradually 
assumed  a  tone  somewhat  different  from  that  of  the  earliest  times. 
It  continued  to  be  coercive  toward  evil  Powers,  but  in  regard  to 


1  See  Lord  Avebury,  Marriage,  Totcmism,  ami  Religion,  chap.  iv. 

2  The  plant  or  animal  may  be  a  totem,  but  its  magical  power  is  not  derived  from 
itstotemic  character.  Magical  potency  may  dwell  in  nontotemic  objects  ;  in  magical 
ceremonies  connected  with  totems  (as  in  Australia)  it  is  the  ceremony  rather  than 
the  totem  that  is  efficacious.    Cf.  Marett,  Threshold  of  Religion,  p.  22  f. 

3  Cf.  Marett,  "  From  spell  to  prayer,"  in  his  Threshold  of  Religion,  p.  33  ff . 

4  Cf.  J.  II.  King,  The  Supernatural,  Index,  s.v.  Charm  ;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  \\, 
148  ;  article  "  Charms  and  Amulets  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 


404     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  good  Powers  it  assumed  rather  to  discover  their  modes  of 
action.  It  was  not  anti-religious ;  it  remained  alongside  of  the 
official  religious  systems  in  friendly  relations.  It  relied  on  the 
assistance  of  the  good  gods  and  not  on  that  of  the  demons.  There 
was  good  magic  and  bad  magic,  white  magic  and  black  magic,  as 
these  came  to  be  called.  A  procedure  of  white  magic  can  thus, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  religion,  hardly  be  distinguished  from 
prayer  to  a  deity.  The  difference  between  the  two  appears  to  be 
that  the  magic  produces  abnormal  or  violent  effects,  which  experi- 
ence taught  could  not  reasonably  be  expected  from  the  deity.  It 
is  the  old  crude  science  brought  (as  the  lesser  divine  Powers  were 
brought)  into  a  relation  of  subordination  to  the  chief  god  of  the 
community. 

902.  Elaborate  magical  systems  are  found  in  some  of  the  ancient 
national  religions.  In  India  the  Atharva-Veda,  though  it  contains 
a  mass  of  crude  old  material,  is  nevertheless  recognized  as  one  of 
the  sacred  books,  standing  by  the  side  of  the  «Rig-Veda,  though  of 
less  authority  and  significance  than  that.  The  Atharvan  was  origi- 
nally a  priest  of  fire,  but  in  this  work  he  becomes  simply  a  magician; 
the  immense  number  of  magical  procedures  in  the  book  provided 
for  all  emergencies  of  life.1  The  Babylonian  magical  formulas  also 
go  back  to  an  early  time,  but  they  were  preserved  by  the  priests 
and  recognized  as  a  legitimate  element  in  the  religious  practice.2 
The  old  Egyptian  stories  introduce  a  number  of  magical  proceed- 
ings, and  the  formulas  have  been  preserved  in  treatises.3  Of  the 
earliest  periods  of  the  Mazdean  religion  we  have  unfortunately 
no  records ;  in  the  time  of  the  decadence  of  the  national  religion, 
especially  in  the  Thousand  and  One  Nights,  the  fire-worshiper  or 
Magian  is  commonly  a  wicked  magician,  as  was  natural  since  he 
belonged  to  a  faith  hostile  to  Islam,  and  the  practicer  of  good  magic 
is  generally  a  Moslem.4  The  early  Greeks  and  Romans  appear  not 

1  Eng.  tr.  by  Bloomfield.  in  Sacred  Books  of  the  East. 

2  L.  W.  King,  Babylonian  Magic  and  Sorcery. 

3  Records  of  the  Past,  first  series,  vols,  ii,  vi ;  Griffith,  article  "  Egyptian  Litera- 
ture "  in  Library  of  the  World's  Best  Literature;  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civilization, 
p.  212  ff. ;  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  Index,  s.v.  Magic. 

4  Cf.  Macdonald,  Religious  Attitude  and  Life  in  Islam,  Index,  s.v.  Magic. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  405 

to  have  been  greatly  interested  in  magical  practices,  though  these 
existed.1  But  a  great  outburst  of  magic  occurred  in  the  Graeco- 
Roman  world  in  the  first  and -second  centuries  of  our  era,  the 
magician  being,  however,  generally  not  Greek  or  Roman,  but  of 
an  inferior  alien  race.'2  Among  the  old  Hebrews  we  have  no  de- 
tails of  magical  procedure  except  in  the  invocation  of  the  dead ; 3 
this  procedure  was  denounced  by  the  prophets  as  hostile  to  the 
worship  of  the  national  god,  but  it  continued  among  the  people  a 
long  time.4  The  practice  of  magic  existed  abundantly  among  the 
early  peoples  of  Europe,  the  Teutons,  and  others.  The  primacy, 
however,  in  magic  belongs  to  the  Finns  and  Lapps,  alien  races 
regarded  as  inferior  in  civilization. 

903.  The  hold  of  magic  on  the  minds  of  men  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  it  has  persisted  up  to  the  present  day.  Its  basis  is  a  belief 
in  occult  powers  and  the  conviction  that  man  may  attain  to  mastery 
over  them.  Certain  forms  of  this  belief,  called  theosophical,  are 
held  by  many  at  the  present  day;  it  is  supposed  that  men  are 
capable  of  transcending  the  ordinary  limitations  of  humanity.  In 
general,  however,  the  whole  system  of  magic  yielded  gradually  to 
the  organized  religions,  the  essence  of  which  was  a  friendly  and 
rational  relation  with  the  deity.  Religion  has  organized  itself  in 
accord  with  the  general  organization  of  human  social  systems.  It 
has  seen  the  necessity  of  getting  rid  of  force,  of  depending  on 
humane  feeling,  cultivating  simply  friendly  relations,  attempting 
a  unity  of  work,  a  cooperation  of  divine  and  human  forces.  All 
this  has  worked  against  magic.  In  addition  to  these  tendencies 
the  constantly  growing  belief  in  the  domination  of  natural  forces 

1  Daremberg  and  Saglio,  Dictionnaire  des  antiquiles  grecques  ct  romaines,  article 
"  Magia  "  ;  cf.  articles  "  Medeia  "  and  "  Kirke  "  in  Koscher's  Lexikon. 

2  Apuleius,  Metamorphoses;  Gibbon,  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  ii, 
535  ff. ;  Friedlander,  Roman  Life  and  Manners  under  the  Early  Empire  (Eng.  tr.),  i, 
260  f. ;'  Fowler,  The  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People,  p.  \-  ff. ;  cf.  Cumont, 
.  Xstrology  and  Religion  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  Index,  s.v.  Magic. 

3  1  Sam.  xxviii;  Isa.  viii,  19. 

4  In  the  later  Judaism  Solomon  is  the  great  master  of  magic;  see  the  story  of 
the  Queen  of  Sheba  in  the  Second  Esther  Targum  ;  Baring-Gould,  Legends  of  Old 
Testament  Characters.  For  the  Arabian  legends  of  Solomon  (borrowed  from  the 
Jews)  see  Koran,  sura  xxxviii ;  History  of  Bilkis,  Queen  of  Sheba,  compiled  from 
various  Arabic  sources,  in  Socin's  Arabic  Grammar  (Eng.  tr.,  1SS5). 


4o6     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

has  made  it  impossible  in  civilized  societies  to  accept  the  powers 
called  magical.1 

904.  To  sum  up :  magic  is  a  means  of  securing  superhuman 
results  by  adopting  the  methods  of  the  superhuman  Powers.2  It 
may  be  coeval  with  religion  proper  or  may  have  preceded  it  in 
human  religious  organization.  In  any  case  it  has  been,  up  to  the 
present  day,  the  rival  of  religion,  though  more  and  more  driven 
to  take  a  secondary  place.  It  has  collected  physical  facts  which 
have  served  as  a  basis  for  the  study  of  physical  science  and  have 
indirectly  furthered  the  cause  of  religion  by  leading  men  to  recog- 
nize natural  law  and  also  by  necessitating  a  distinction  between 
theistic  and  other  superhuman  results.3  In  the  absence  of  distinct 
religious  systems  it  has  been  a  bond  of  social  union,  and  to  that 
extent  has  been  a  civilizing  influence.  On  the  other  hand,  it  has 
fostered  belief  in  a  false  science  of  sequences  and  thus  helped  to 
introduce  confusion  into  thought  and  the  conduct  of  life.  The  aim 
of  religion  has  been,  and  is,  to  banish  magic  from  the  world.4 

Divination 

905.  Divination  is  the  science  that  seeks  to  discover  the  will  of 
the  supernatural  Powers  by  means  of  the  observation  of  phenomena. 
Men  desire  to  learn  the  causes  of  present  and  past  misfortunes 
and  the  story  of  the  future,  that  they  may  know  at  any  moment 
what  is  the  best  course  to  pursue.  The  underlying  supposition  is 
that  these  things  are  indicated  by  the  appearances  and  movements 
of  the  various  objects  of  the  world.  It  is  in  these  phenomena  that 
the  purposes  of  superhuman  forces  become  visible  to  man ;  the 
gods,  it  is  held,  cannot  but  so  reveal  themselves  (for  they  produce 

1  Lecky,  History  of  the  Rise  and  Influence  of  the  Spirit  of  Rationalism  in  Europe  ; 
Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  Index,  s.vv.  Magic  and 
Witches. 

2  These  Powers,  including  mana,  may  all  be  called  '<  divine "  as  distinguished 
from  the  purely  "  human." 

3  A  superhuman  phenomenon,  if  produced  by  a  deity,  is  called  a  "  miracle,"  and  is 
held  to  be  beneficent ;  if  produced  by  a  nontheistic  process,  it  is  called  "  magical," 
and  is  looked  at  doubtfully. 

4  Cf.  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  ii,  696 ;  Hob- 
house,  Morals  hi  Evolution,  Index,  s.v.  Magic  and  Morals. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  407 

all  phenomena),  and  man's  task  is  to  discover  the  laws  of  phe- 
nomenal revelation.  The  question  of  the  motive  in  this  revelation 
is  not  distinctly  raised,  but  it  is  taken  for  granted  that  the  Powers 
are  willing  to  help  man  by  guiding  his  uncertain  footsteps ;  their 
attitude  is  so  far  friendly  —  they  belong  in  feeling  to  the  human 
community.1 

Divination  has  in  common  with  magic  the  assumption  of  the 
unity  of  the  world  and  its  control  by  law,  and  the  search  for  divine 
activity  in  the  facts  of  life.  But  the  two  differ  essentially  in  their 
aims.  Divination  seeks  to  learn  the  divine  will  in  order  to  be  guided; 
magic  studies  divine  action  in  order  to  imitate  it  and  accomplish 
divine  results.  Divination  is  an  inquirer,  and  its  virtue  is  obedience; 
magic  is  an  investigator,  and  its  virtue  is  achievement.  Both  are 
self-seeking,  but  divination  is  the  more  reverent  and  allies  itself 
more  easily  with  religion.  But  both  tend  to  become  corrupt  and 
decadent,  and  their  roles  are  determined  from  time  to  time  by  the 
conditions  of  the  communities  in  which  they  are  found.2 

906.  The  organization  of  divination  resembles  that  of  magic  in 
several  respects.  It  comes  to  have  its  special  functionaries,  into 
whose  hands  all  its  authority  falls.  The  divinatory  power  (like  the 
magical)  comes  to  a  man  sometimes  as  a  gift  of  nature  (that  is,  of 
a  god)  or  in  some  mysterious  external  way,  sometimes  as  a  result 
of  a  course  of  training  in  which  the  significance  of  the  various  signs 
is  learned.  It  is  sometimes  a  property  of  a  clan  or  a  family  and 
descends  from  father  to  son,  always,  however,  under  the  condition 
of  instruction  of  the  young  by  the  old.  The  diviner,  like  the  magi- 
cian, sometimes  performs  various  ceremonies  for  the  purpose  of 
bringing  himself  into  relation  with  the  gods,  and  his  utterances  are 
frequently  given  in  an  ecstatic  condition.  In  this  condition  he  is 
said  in  some  instances  (as  among  the  Todas 3)  to  speak  a  lan- 
guage not  his  own,  with  which  in  his  ordinary  state  of  mind  he  is 

1  Ultimately,  in  early  religious  theory,  all  objects  are  divine  or  abodes  or  incarna- 
tions of  divine  beings  and  capable  of  independent  action  ;  sometimes,  doubtless,  the 
recognition  of  the  natural  character  of  a  thing  (as  of  courage  and  other  qualities  in 
animals)  coalesces  with  the  belief  in  its  guiding  power. 

2  Cf.  article  "  Magia "  in  Daremberg  and  Saglio,  Dictionnaire  des  antiquites 
grecqucs  et  romaincs,  p.  1496.  3  Rivers,  The  Todas,  p.  254. 


408     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

unacquainted,  or  to  utter  words  that  are  not  understood  either  by 
himself  or  by  others.  Ecstasy  means  possession  by  the  deity ; 
the  interpretation  of  the  diviner's  words,  which,  in  the  ecstatic  con- 
dition, are  the  words  of  a  spirit  or  a  god,  is  sometimes  left  to  the 
bystanders,  or,  if  unintelligible  to  them,  must  be  recovered  by  the 
seer  himself  when  he  returns  to  his  normal  condition. 

907.  The  highest  development  of  ecstasy  is  found  in  the  prophet 
proper.  Originally  the  prophet  was  a  foreteller  and  acted  under 
the  inspiration  of  a  god,  a  divine  seizure  that  was  allied  to  madness. 
The  ravings  of  the  savage  shaman1  are  repeated  in  the  ravings  of 
Cassandra  and  in  the  excited  utterances  and  bodily  exhaustion  of 
the  early  Hebrew  prophets.2  A  nobler  use  of  ecstasy  is  exhibited 
in  the  youth  of  Byblos,  who  rescued  an  unfortunate  Egyptian  envoy 
from  insult  and  secured  him  honorable  treatment.3  The  more  ad- 
vanced thought  tended  to  abandon  the  abnormal  state  of  the  diviner 
and  make  him  simply  a  recipient  of  divine  knowledge  by  the  favor 
of  a  god  —  the  gods  came  to  choose  thoughtful  men  instead  of 
beasts  as  their  intermediaries.4  The  Hebrew  prophets  whose  utter- 
ances have  been  preserved,  from  Amos  onward,  are  men  of  insight, 
essentially  critics  of  the  national  life,  and  moral  watchmen ;  but 
features  of  the  old  conception  of  divinatory  power  continue  for 
some  time  to  attach  to  them.5 

908.  The  differentiation  of  functions  between  magician,  diviner, 
and  priest  appears  to  have  taken  place  at  a  comparatively  early 
period,  though  it  is  probable  that  in  the  earliest  times  all  these 
characters  might  be  united  in  a  single  person.  As  soon  as  an 
organized  religion  is  established  the  priest  acquires  his  specific 
function  as  intermediator  between  men  and  gods,  often,  however, 
retaining  the  power  of  discovering  the  will  of  the  deity.6  Magic, 
as  we  have  seen,  tends  to  become  an  unsocial  and  hostile  thing, 

1  Cf.  article  "Bantu"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  p.  358. 

2  1  Sam.  x,  5  ;  xix,  24. 

3  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  5  13  f.  The  envoy  not  only  failed  to  procure  cedar 
for  the  sacred  barge  of  Amon  but  was  ordered  by  the  prince  to  leave  the  city ;  the 
youth  intervened  successfully  (ca.  tioo  b.c). 

4  So  Teiresias  (Odyssey,  x,  492  ff. ;  CEdipus  Tyrannus,  92)  and  Samuel  (1  Sam.  ix). 

5  Mic.  i,  8  ;  cf.  2  Kings  iii,  15  (music  as  a  preliminary  condition  of  inspiration). 

6  As  among  the  Hebrews,  the  Greeks,  and  other  ancient  peoples. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  409 

and  the  magician  is  in  later  times  punished  or  discountenanced  by 
public  opinion.  The  diviner,  on  the  other  hand,  has  generally  re- 
tained possession  of  his  public  for  the  reason  that  he  is  in  sympathy 
with  the  gods  of  the  community  and  his  work  is  held  to  be  wholly 
friendly.  In  all  stages  of  religious  development,  except  the  very 
highest,  he  has  been  recognized  by  public  opinion  and  by  law  as  a 
part  of  the  religious  constitution  of  society  and  has  often  attained 
great  civil  and  political  power.1  Among  civilized  peoples  he  comes 
to  be  a  man  of  learning,  acquainted  with  many  things  besides  the 
mere  signs  of  the  will  of  the  gods. 

909.  Divinatory  signs  may  be  grouped  in  various  classes  accord- 
ing as  they  belong  to  the  outer  world  or  to  men's  inward  experi- 
ences, and  according  as  they  present  themselves  without  or  with 
preparation  by  man.  Outward  signs  in  ordinary  occurrences  which, 
so  far  as  human  initiative  is  concerned,  are  accidental  may  be 
called,  for  convenience,  "  omens."  Uncommon  occurrences  may  be 
called,  if  they  appear  in  the  forms  of  men  and  animals,  "  prodigies," 
and  if  they  are  seen  in  the  physical  world,  "  portents."  These  desig- 
nations are  arbitrary,  and  sometimes  two  or  more  of  them  may  be 
appropriate  for  the  same  event.  Inward  signs  are  dreams,  reve- 
lations in  the  ecstatic  state,  and  prophetic  inspirations.2  We  may 
begin  with  divination  from  the  observation  of  external  objects,  and 
consider  first  such  as  are  accidental  (omens,  prodigies,  portents). 

910.  Omens,  prodigies,  and  portents  are  to  be  regarded  as  the 
product  of  ages  of  experience.  The  observations  of  early  men 
seem  to  them  to  show  that  certain  appearances  are  followed  by 
certain  events,  and  the  details  of  experience,  handed  down  and 
interpreted  by  successive  generations,  are  in  the  course  of  time 
sifted,  systematized,  and  formulated.  In  savage  and  half-civilized 
communities  divinatory  signs  are  usually  simple,  drawn  from  ap- 
pearances of  familiar  objects  and  occurrences.  They  become  more 
complicated  in  civilized  times  —  they  are  mingled .  with  elaborate 


1  Formerly,  says  Cicero  {De  Divinationc,  i,  16),  almost  nothing  of  moment,  or 
even  in  private  affairs,  was  undertaken  without  an  augury. 

2  For  a  tabulation  of  omens  and  other  signs  and  of  forms  of  divinatory  procedure 
see  article  "  Divination  "  in  La  Grande  Encyclopedic 


410     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

astrological  ideas.  Divination  becomes  a  science  for  the  practice 
of  which  a  technical  education  is  required.  Belief  in  omens  and 
other  signs  survives  among  the  highest  civilized  peoples  long  after 
the  conceptions  on  which  they  rest  have  been  abandoned.  The 
origin  of  signs  among  savage  peoples  may  often  be  traced  with 
more  or  less  probability ;  in  the  case  of  such  as  survive  in  periods 
of  high  culture  the  origin  is  necessarily  obscured  by  the  lapse 
of  time  and  can  be  surmised  only  by  comparison  with  earlier 
conceptions. 

The  belief  in  such  signs  may  be  traced  over  a  great  part  of  the 
world.  It  is  found  among  the  ancient  Egyptians,  Babylonians, 
Assyrians,  Hindus,  Chinese,  Hebrews,  Greeks,  Romans,  Arabians, 
and  at  a  later  time  among  the  Celtic,  Slavic,  and  Teutonic  peoples.1 
At  the  present  day  it  occurs  most  highly  developed  in  Polynesia, 
Northern  Africa,  Southern  India,  and  Central  Asia ;  it  is  relatively 
unimportant  in  Western  and  Central  Africa,  North  America,  South 
America,  and  Australia.  One  difference  between  divination  and 
magic  thus  appears  to  be  that  the  latter  is  vigorous  in  savage 
communities  that  pay  little  attention  to  the  former.  Further  collec- 
tions of  facts  may  require  a  modification  of  this  statement ;  but,  in 
general,  it  would  seem  that  an  organization  of  signs,  demanding,  as 
it  does,  orderly  reflection  on  phenomena,  is  proper  to  communities 
that  have  advanced  beyond  the  hunting  and  nomadic  stages.  For 
the  rest,  there  are  few  objects  or  occurrences  that  have  not  been 

1  Cicero,  De  Divinatione,  i,  1-4  ;  Diodorus  Siculus,  i,  70,  81 ;  Maspero,  Dawn  of 
Civilization,  p.  216  ff. ;  Steindorff,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  113  ff.  (cf. 
Gen.  xliv,  5,  15,  which  may  point  to  an  Egyptian  custom  of  divination  by  cup)  ;  Jas- 
trow,  Religion  Babyloniens  tend Assyriens,  and  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice 
in  Babylonia  and  Assyria;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  pp.  256,  328  ;  De  Groot, 
Religious  System  of  China,  i,  103  ff.;  iii,  chap,  xii ;  Buckley,  in  Saussaye's  Lehrbuch 
der  Rcligionsgeschichte,  2d  ed.  (China)  ;  articles  "  Divination "  in  Encyclopedia 
Biblica,  Hastings's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  and  fewish  Encyclopedia ;  Bouche- 
Leclercq,  Histoire  de  la  divination  dans  Jantiquite  ;  articles  "  Divinatio  "  and  "  Haru- 
spices  "  in  Daremberg  and  Saglio,  Dictionnaire  tics  antiquitcs  grecques  ct  romaines ; 
Gardner  and  Jevons,  Greek  Antiquities,  chap,  vii ;  Stengel  and  Oehmichen,  Die 
griechischen  Sakralaltertiimer  \  Wissowa,  Religion  der  Romcr,  p.  450  ff. ;  Fowler,  Re- 
ligious Experience  of  the  Roman  People,  lecture  xiii ;  Wellhausen,  Rcste  arabischen 
Hcidcntumcs,  pp.  126  ff.,  148  ff . ;  article  "Celts"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia  of 
Religion  and  Ethics;  Hastings,  op.  cit.,  ii,  54  ff . ;  Saussaye,  Religion  of  the  Teutons, 
Index,  s.v.  Divination. 


M.  I GIC  AND  DIVINA  TION  4 1 1 

regarded  at  some  time  by  some  people  as  indications  of  divine  will 
in  respect  to  present,  past,  or  future  events. 

911.  A  fair  illustration  of  the  early  belief  in  omens  is  afforded 
by  the  divinatory  system  that  prevails  in  Samoa  and  the  neighbor- 
ing group  of  islands.1  It  appears  that  all  omens  are  derived  either 
from  the  movements  of  animals  that  are  regarded  as  incarnations 
of  deities,2  or  from  phenomena  that  are  held  to  be  produced  im- 
mediately by  deities.  The  flight  of  owls,  bats,  or  rails,  according  to 
its  direction,  indicates  the  result  of  a  battle  or  a  war ;  the  howling 
of  a  dog  is  a  sign  of  coming  misfortune ;  if  a  centipede  crawls  on 
the  top  of  a  mat  it  is  a  good  omen,  if  on  the  bottom  of  a  mat  it  is 
bad  ;  it  is  unfortunate  when  a  lizard  crosses  one's  path  ;  if  a  basket 
be  found  turned  upside  down,  in  a  road,  this  is  a  sign  of  evil ;  the 
way  in  which  sacred  stones  fall  to  the  ground  is  an  indication  of 
the  future.  The  animals  mentioned  above  (and  there  are  many 
other  such)  are  all  regarded  as  incarnations  of  deities.  So  as  to 
portents :  loud  thunder,  taken  to  be  the  voice  of  the  great  god 
Tangaloa,  is  a  good  sign ;  the  significance  of  lightning  (which  also 
is  sent  by  the  god)  depends  upon  the  direction  taken  by  the  flash. 
An  eclipse  is  regarded  as  a  presage  of  death.  A  similar  system  of 
interpretation  of  signs  is  found  elsewhere.  The  Masai  and  the 
Nandi  draw  omens  from  the  movements  of  birds.3  In  Ashantiland 
the  cry  of  the  owl  means  death.4  When  in  Australia  the  track  of 
an  insect  is  believed  to  point  toward  the  abode  of  the  sorcerer  by 
whom  a  man  has  been  done  to  death,  the  conception  is  probably 
the  same.  The  modern  Afghans  hold  that  a  high  wind  that  con- 
tinues three  days  is  a  sign  that  a  murder  has  been  committed.5 
Examples  from  Brazil,  Borneo,  New  Zealand,  Old  Calabar  and 
Tatarland    are   given   by   Tylor.6     In   the   early   Hebrew   history 


1  Turner,  Samoa,  Index,  s.v.  Omens. 

2  These  animals  were  originally  themselves  divine,  and  therefore,  by  their  own 
knowledge,  capable  of  indicating  the  course  of  events ;  cf.  §  905,  note. 

8  Mollis,  The  Masai,  p.  323  f. ;  id.,  The  Nandi,  p.  79.         4  Ellis,  Tshi,  p.  203. 

5  Conolly,  Journey  to  the  North  of  India,  2d  ed.,  1838,  ii,  137  ff. 

6  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  ~S,  etc.  For  South  Africa  cf.  Callaway,  The  .  \mazulu, 
Index,  s.vv.  Omens,  Divination,  Diviners;  Kidd,  The  Essential  Kafir,  Index,  s.v.  Di- 
vining ;  article  "  Bantu  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopcedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  p.  362. 


4I2      IXTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

it  appears  that  a  rustling  in  trees  was  looked  on  as  a  sign  of 
divine  intervention.1 

912.  In  ancient  Babylonia  and  Assyria  an  elaborate  system  of 
interpretation  of  ordinary  occurrences  prevailed  —  the  movements 
and  appearances  of  various  species  of  birds,  of  bulls,  of  dogs  of 
all  colors  are  noted,  with  minute  interpretations.2  The  Greeks 
recognized  omens  in  the  acts  of  various  animals,  especially  in  the 
flight  and  cries  of  birds ;  so  important  were  these  last  that  the 
words  for  '  bird '  came  to  be  employed  for  '  omens  from  birds ' 
and  even  simply  for  '  omens  ' ; 3  Aristophanes,  laughing  at  the 
Athenians,  declares  that  they  called  every  mantic  sign  '  bird  \4 
Skepticism,  however,  appears  in  Hector's  passionate  rejection  of 
the  signs  of  birds  and  his  declaration  that  the  best  omen  is  to  fight 
for  one's  country.5  A  similar  mantic  prominence  of  birds  appears 
in  ancient  Rome  where  the  terms  for  the  observation  of  birds 
(ausptdum,  augurium)  came  to  signify  '  omens '  in  general.  The 
preeminence  thus  accorded  to  birds  was  due  perhaps  to  the  fact 
that  they  move  in  a  region  above  the  earth,  the  larger  species 
(oiwvos)  seeking  the  sky  near  the  abode  of  the  gods,  as  well  as  to 
the  frequency  and  variety  of  their  actions.6  The  feeling  of  direct 
contact  with  the  deity  appears  in  the  significance  attached  to  the 
movements  of  a  sacrificial  animal:  if  it  approached  the  altar 
willingly,  this,  showing  accord  with  the  deity,  was  a  good  omen, 
and  unwillingness  was  a  bad  omen.7  Among  the  later  Romans 
the  entrance  of  a  strange  black  dog  into  a  house,  the  falling  of  a 
snake  through  the  opening  in  the  roof,  the  crowing  of  a  hen  were 
unfavorable  signs  which  prevented  the  immediate  undertaking  of 


1  2  Sam.  v,  24. 

2  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  (Eng.  and  Ger.  edd.),  in  which  ref- 
erences to  the  original  document's  are  given. 

3  6pvL$,  oiuvSs.  Iliad,  ii,  859  ;  xii,  237  ;  xxiv,  219  ;  Hesiod,  Works  and  Days,  826  ; 
cf.  Bouche-Leclercq,  Histoirc  de  la  divination  dans  Pantiqnite,  i,  127  ff. 

4  Birds,  715  ff.  5  Uiad,  xii,  243. 

c  In  Borneo,  which  has  an  elaborate  scheme  of  omens  from  birds,  prayer  is  some- 
times addressed  to  them.  Furness,  Home  Life  of  the  Borneo  Head-hunters,  Index,  s.v. 
Omen;  Haddon,  Head-hunters,  p.  344. 

"  The  sacrificial  animal  was  regarded  as  divine,  and  its  movements  had  the  signifi- 
cance of  divine  counsels. 


MA  GIC  AND  Dl  /  7, \ '.  /  TION  4 1  3 

any  new  affair ; 1  these  were  all  unusual  and  therefore  uncanny 
occurrences.  Some  of  the  animals  that  furnish  omens  are  totems, 
and  in  such  cases  the  totemic  significance  coalesces  with  that  of 
the  omen;  the  animal  that  appeals  to  the  young  Sioux  candidate 
as  his  manitu  has  both  characters  —  it  is  the  sign  of  divine  ac- 
ceptance and  the  embodiment  of  the  divine  patron.2 

913.  Prodigies  connected  with  the  birth  of  children  are  numer- 
ous. The  complete  or  incomplete  character  of  the  infant's  body, 
various  marks  and  colors,  and  the  number  produced  at  a  birth 
have  been  carefully  noted  by  many  peoples.  The  birth  of  twins 
seems  to  have  been  more  commonly  regarded  in  savage  and  half- 
civilized  communities  either  as  a  presage  of  misfortune  (as  being 
unusual  and  mysterious)  or  as  a  sign  of  conjugal  unfaithfulness 
(as  indicating  two  fathers,  one  of  whom  might  be  a  god).  Inter- 
pretations of  births  are  given  in  Babylonian  records.3  Everywhere 
monstrous  births,  misshapen  forms,  and  abnormal  colors  in  the 
bodies  of  men  and  beasts  have  been  regarded  as  indications  of 
divine  displeasure. 

914.  That  the  stars  early  attracted  the  attention  of  man  is 
shown  by  the  fact  that  constellations  are  recognized  in  some 
lower  tribes  —  for  example,  in  the  New  Hebrides  Islands,  among 
the  Todas,  the  Masai,  the  Nandi,  and  elsewhere.4  Since  all 
heavenly  bodies  were  regarded  originally  as  divine,  and  later  as 
controlled  by  divine  beings,  sometimes  also  as  the  abodes  of  the 
dead  or  as  the  souls  of  the  dead,  it  was  natural  that  astral  move- 
ments should  be  looked  on  as  giving  signs  of  the  will  of  the 
gods.  Astronomy  appears  to  have  been  pursued  in  the  first  in- 
stance not  from  interest  in  the  natural  laws  governing  the  move- 
ments of  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  but  from  belief  in  their  divinatory 
significance.  How  far  this  study  was  carried  on  all  over  the 
ancient  world   we   have   no   means   of   knowing;   but,   as  far  as 

1  Terence,  Phormio,  IV,  iv,  25  ff. 

2  Frazer,  Totemism  and  Exogamy,  ii,  137;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  119  f .  ; 
Miss  Fletcher,  Indian  Ceremonies,  p.  278  ff. 

3  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  384  ff. 

4  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  319;  Rivers,  The  Todas,  p.  593;  Ilollis,  The  Nandi,  p.  100, 
and  The  Masai,  p.  275  ff. 


4I4     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

the  records  go,  it  was  the  Babylonians  that  first  reduced  astral 
divination  to  the  form  of  a  science,1  and  it  is  probable  that  from 
them  it  spread  over  Western  Asia  and  India,  and  perhaps  into 
Europe.  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  documents  contain  many  ac- 
curate statements  of  the  appearances  of  heavenly  bodies;  and 
in  the  third  or  second  century  B.C.,  as  we  learn  from  the  Book 
of  Daniel,  the  term  '  Chaldean '  was  synonymous  with  '  magician.' 
While  astronomy  was  pursued  by  the  Egyptians  with  great  suc- 
cess, whereby  they  made  a  notable  construction  of  the  calendar, 
they  seem  not  to  have  cultivated  astrology,  though  they  associated 
certain  stars  with  certain  gods  and  with  lucky  or  unlucky  days.2 

915.  Of  all  divinatory  methods  astrology  has  played  the  greatest 
role  in  human  history,  and  is  still  believed  in  and  studied  by  not 
a  few  persons.  It  derived  its  prominence  originally,  no  doubt, 
from  the  splendor  and  mystery  of  the  sidereal  heavens;  the 
identification  (by  the  Babylonians)  of  certain  planets  with  certain 
deities  gave  it  more  definite  shape.  It  was  necessarily  a  learned 
pursuit,  and,  falling  naturally  into  the  hands  of  priestly  bodies, 
was  developed  by  them  in  accordance  with  the  needs  of  the  situa- 
tion. Rules  of  interpretation  were  established  that  became  more 
and  more  specific.  In  the  early  period  of  astrology  it  was  con- 
cerning matters  of  public  interest  that  information  was  sought  — 
crops,  wars,  and  the  fortunes  of  the  king  as  the  head  of  the 
nation.3  At  a  later  time,  but  before  the  beginning  of  our  era,  in 
accordance  with  the  growth  of  ethical  individualism,  the  stars 
were  interrogated  for  the  destinies  of  private  individuals;4  the 
aspect  of  the  heavens  at  the  moment  of  birth,  the  horoscope, 
announced  the  fate  of  the  nascent  man.5 

In  the  hands  of  the  Chaldeans  astrology  remained  exclusively  or 
largely  a  science  of  omens.  An  advance  toward  a  higher  concep- 
tion, however,  was  made  by  their  identification  of  certain  planets 

1  On  the  exaggerated  range  and  importance  ascribed  by  some  modern  writers 
to  early  conceptions  of  the  divinatory  function  of  heavenly  bodies  see  above,  §§  826, 
866  ff.  2  Erman,  Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion,  pp.  163,  180. 

3  Jastrow,  Aspects  of  Religions  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria, 
p.  240  ff. ;  R.  F.  Harper,  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Literature,  p.  451  ff. 

4  Persius,  vi,  18.  5  Cicero,  De  Divinatione,  ii,  42  ff. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  415 

with  certain  gods,1  whereby  the  regularity  and  certainty  of  move- 
ment of  the  astral  world  were  carried  over  to  the  world  of  divine 
Powers.  When,  in  the  centuries  just  preceding  and  following  the 
beginning  of  our  era,  Chaldean  astrology  was  adopted  by  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  it  was  organized  by  them  in  accordance 
with  their  philosophy,  and  it  entered  into  alliance  with  all  the 
higher  religious  tendencies  of  the  period.  In  the  unchangeable- 
ness  of  stellar  movements  the  Stoics  saw  a  principle  substantially 
identical  with  their  doctrine  of  fate.  Along  various  lines  (in 
Judaism  and  Christianity,  and  in  the  mysteries  of  Mithra  and 
Isis)  men  were  moving  toward  the  conception  of  a  single  supreme 
ruler  of  the  world,  and  astrology  fell  into  line  with  this  movement. 
The  starry  universe  was  held  to  be  the  controller  of  human  life, 
worthy  of  worship,  and  able  to  call  forth  emotion.  Thus  astrology 
became  a  religion'2  —  it  was  adopted  by  learned  and  unlearned, 
its  ethical  and  spiritual  quality  being  determined  by  the  character 
and  thought  of  the  various  groups  that  professed  it.  For  some 
centuries  it  was  a  religious  power  in  the  world ;  as  a  religious 
system  it  gave  way  gradually  to  more  definite  constructions,  but 
it  survived  as  a  science  long  after  it  had  ceased  to  be  believed  in 
as  a  life-giving  faith. 

The  persistence  of  faith  in  it  as  a  science  is  an  additional  illus- 
tration of  men's  demand  for  visible  signs  of  the  intervention  of 
the  deity  in  human  affairs ; 3  as  often  as  certain  supposed  embodi- 
ments of  the  supernatural   are   discarded,  others   are  taken  up. 

1  The  largest  planet  was  brought  into  connection  with  the  chief  god  of  Babylon, 
Marduk ;  the  bright  star  of  morning  and  evening  with  Ishtar  ;  the  red  planet  with 
Nergal,  god  of  war,  and  the  others  with  Ninib  and  Nebo  respectively.  The  Romans 
changed  these  names  into  those  of  their  corresponding  deities,  Jupiter,  Venus,  Mars. 
Saturn,  and  Mercury. 

2  Cumont,  Les  religions  orientates  dans  le  paganisme  romain,  chap,  vii,  and  Eng. 
tr.,  The  Oriental  Religions  in  Roman  Paganism  ;  id..  Astrology  and  Religion  among 
the  Greeks  and  Romans  ;  Bouche-Leclercq,  Last)  ologie  grecque  and  Histoire  de  la 
divination  dans  V  antiquite . 

3  Medieval  belief  in  astral  power  is  embodied  in  the  English  word  'influence,' 
properly  the  inflow  from  the  stars  (so  in  Milton's  DAllegro,  121  f.,  "ladies  whose 
bright  eyes  rain  influence").  An  astrologer  was  often  attached  to  a  royal  court  or 
to  the  household  of  some  great  person,  his  duty  being  to  keep  his  patron  informed 
as  to  the  future. 


4l6     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

The  earlier  philosophical  views  of  the  relation  of  the  heavenly 
bodies  to  human  life  are  now  generally  abandoned,  and  such 
belief  in  this  relation  as  now  exists  has  no  scientific  basis,  but 
is  founded  on  vague  desire. 

In  savage  and  in  civilized  times  eclipses,  comets,  the  appear- 
ance of  a  new  star,  and  earthquakes  have  been  regarded  as  indica- 
tions of  the  attitude  of  the  deity  —  sometimes  favorable,  sometimes 
unfavorable. 

916.  The  words  and  actions  of  men  and  their  normal  peculi- 
arities of  bodily  form  have  furnished  comparatively  few  divinatory 
signs,  the  reason  being,  probably,  that  in  early  times  animals  and 
other  nonhuman  things  arrested  the  attention  of  observers  more 
forcibly,  while  in  later  times  such  acts  and  forms  were  more 
readily  explained  from  natural  conditions  and  laws.  The  palpita- 
tion of  the  eye,  which  seems  sometimes  to  uneducated  man  to  be 
produced  by  an  external  force,  has  been  taken  as  a  presage  of 
misfortune.  A  burning  sensation  in  the  ear  is  still  believed,  by 
some  persons  to  be  a  sign  that  one  is  being  talked  about;  in 
early  stages  of  culture  the  sensation  was  regarded  as  a  warning 
sent  by  the  guardian  spirit  or  some  other  superhuman  being. 
Sneezing  was  once  looked  on  as  a  happy  omen  :  when  Telemachus 
gave  a  resounding  sneeze  Penelope  interpreted  it  as  a  sign  that 
news  of  his  father  was  at  hand.1  An  act  performed  without 
ulterior  purpose  may  be  taken  to  symbolize  some  sort  of  for- 
tune. When  the  Calif  Omar  sent  an  embassy  to  the  Persian 
King  Yezdegird  summoning  him  to  embrace  Islam,  the  angry 
king  commanded  that  a  clod  of  earth  should  be  brought  and  that 
the  ambassadors  should  bear  it  out  of  the  city,  which  they  accord- 
ingly did ;  and  this  act  was  taken  both  by  Arabs  and  by  Persians 
as  a  presage  of  Moslem  victory  —  the  invaders  had  a  portion  of 
Persian  soil.2  An  element  of  magic,  however,  may  have  entered 
into   this   conviction;   the  bit  of   soil  was  supposed,   perhaps,  to 


1  Odyssey,  xvii,  541  ff.  The  fear  of  a  sneeze  (which  must  be  followed  by  some 
form  of  '  God  bless  you!')  belongs  in  a  different  category;  the  danger  is  that  a 
hurtful  spirit  may  enter  the  sneezer's  body,  or  that  his  soul  may  depart. 

2  Muir,  The  Caliphate,  p.  112. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  417 

carry  with  it  the  whole  land.  A  chance  word  has  often  been 
seized  on  as  an  indication  of  the  future,  or  a  proper  name  taken 
as  a  presage. 

917.  The  belief  in  the  sacredness  or  divinity  of  the  human 
body  has  led  to  the  search  for  divinatory  signs  in  its  parts.  But 
it  is  only  the  hand  that  has  been  extensively  employed  in  this 
way.  The  hand  has  offered  itself  as  most  available  for  divination, 
partly,  perhaps,  because  of  the  variety  and  importance  of  its 
functions,  partly  because  of  the  variety  of  lines  it  shows  and  the 
ease  with  which  it  may  be  examined.  Chiromancy,  or  palmistry, 
has  been  developed  into  a  science  and  has  maintained  itself  to 
the  present  day ;  but  it  has  largely  lost  its  divinatory  significance 
and  has  become  a  study  of  character,  which  is  supposed  to  be 
indicated  by  the  lines  of  the  hand.  In  its  divinatory  role  it  has 
often  been  connected  with  astrology. 

918.  The  preceding  examples  deal  with  occurrences  that  present 
themselves  without  human  initiation.  In  certain  cases  the  materials 
for  divination  are  arranged  by  men  themselves.  In  such  methods 
there  is  always  an  appeal  to  the  deity,  a  demand  that  a  god  shall 
intervene  and  indicate  his  will  under  the  conditions  prepared  by 
men,  the  assumption  being  that  the  god  has  prepared  the  event 
or  thing  in  question,  and  that,  when  properly  approached,  he  will 
be  disposed  to  give  his  worshipers  the  assistance  desired.  The 
casting  of  lots  and  similar  random  procedures  have  been  common 
methods  of  divination  the  world  over.  The  African  Kafir  diviner 
detects  criminals  by  the  fall  of  small  objects  used  as  dice.  The 
Ashanti  discover  future  events  by  the  figures  formed  when  palm 
wine  is  thrown  on  the  ground,  and  from  the  nature  of  the  num- 
bers, whether  even  or  odd,  when  one  lets  fall  a  handful  of  nuts. 
In  a  dispute  the  Yoruban  priest  holds  in  his  hand  a  number  of 
grass  stalks,  one  of  which  is  bent,  and  the  person  who  draws  the 
bent  stalk  is  adjudged  to  be  in  fault.1  The  Hebrews  had  the 
official  use  of  objects  called  "  urim  and  thummim  "  (terms  whose 
meaning  is  unknown  to  us),  which  were  probably  small  cubes,  to 

1  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  ii,  362  ;  Ellis,  Tshi,  p.  202  ;  id.. 
Yoruba,  p.  97  ;  cf.  Hollis,  The  Masai,  p.  324. 


4I 8     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

each  of  which  was  somehow  attached  an  answer  "  yes  "  or  "no," 
or  the  name  of  a  person.  Thus,  when  David  inquired  whether 
he  was  to  attack  the  Philistines,  the  answer  seems  to  have  been 
"  yes."  x  When  it  was  a  question  who  had  violated  the  taboo 
announced  by  Saul,  the  urim  and  thummim  first  decided  that 
it  was  not  the  people  but  the  royal  family ;  and  then,  as  between 
Saul  and  Jonathan,  that  it  was  the  latter  who  was  guilty.2  Accord- 
ing to  the  Book  of  Ezekiel  the  Chaldean  King  Nebuchadrezzar 
drew  lots  by  arrows  to  determine  what  road  he  should  take  in  a 
campaign.3  The  old  Arabs  employed  a  species  of  divination  by 
arrows,  which,  when  thrown  down,  by  their  position  indicated 
the  will  of  the  gods ;  and  in  the  division  of  the  flesh  of  a  beast 
slaughtered  by  a  clan  or  group,  the  portions  to  be  assigned  to 
various  persons  were  determined  by  the  drawing  of  arrows.4 
Divination  by  lot  was  also  largely  employed  by  the  Greeks  and 
the  Romans.5  The  method  called  "  sortes  vergilianae  "  is  still  in 
vogue ;  it  was  and  is  a  custom  among  pious  persons,  Christian 
or  Moslem,  to  learn  the  course  that  they  are  to  take  in  an 
emergency  by  opening  a  Bible  or  a  copy  of  the  Koran  at  ran- 
dom and  accepting  the  first  words  on  which  the  eye  falls  as  an 
indication  of  the  divine  will,  the  deity  being  supposed  to  direct 
the  eye.6 

919.  One  of  the  commonest  and  most  important  methods  of 
divination  in  antiquity  was  the  examination  of  the  entrails  of  ani- 
mals (haruspication).  Of  this  system  there  are  a  few  examples 
among  savage  peoples,7  but  it  has  attained  special  significance 
only  among  the  great  civilized  nations  and  especially  among  the 
Babylonians,  the  Etruscans,  and  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  The 
slaughtered  animal  was  generally  held  to  be  itself  sacred  or  divine, 

1  i  Sam.  xxiii,  2.  2  1  Sam.  xiv,  38-42  (see  the  Septuagint  text). 

3  Ezek.  xxi,  21  [26].  4  Moallakat  of  ImmH-Kais,  ver.  22. 

5  Bouche-Leclercq,  Histoirc  dc  la  divination  dans  Vantiqnite,  i,  195  ff.  ;  iv,  153, 
159;  Augustine,  Confessions,  iv,  5  :  de  paginis  poetae  cujuspiam  longe  aliud  canentis 
atque  intendentis  ;  if,  says  Augustine's  friend,  an  apposite  verse  so  appears,  it  is  not 
wonderful  that  something  bearing  on  one's  affairs  should  issue  from  the  human  soul 
by  some  higher  instinct,  though  the  soul  does  not  know  what  goes  on  within  it. 

6  Cf.  Comparetti,  Virgilio  ncl  medio  cvo,  i,  64  f.  (Eng.  tr.,  p.  47  f.). 

7  As  the  Masai  (Hollis,  The  Masai,  p.  324). 


MA  GIC  AND  DIVINA  TION  4 1 9 

and,  as  it  was  offered  to  the  deity,  it  was  a  natural  belief  that  the 
god  would  indicate  his  will  by  the  character  of  the  inward  parts, 
which  were  supposed  to  be  particularly  connected  with  the  life  of 
the  animal.  Of  these  animal  parts  the  liver  was  regarded  as  the 
most  important.  The  liver  was  for  the  Babylonians  the  special  seat 
of  thought,  whether  from  its  position  or  its  size  or  from  some  other 
consideration  we  have  no  means  of  knowing.  The  explanation  of 
the  form  and  appearance  of  the  liver  became  itself  a  separate  science, 
and  this  science  was  developed  with  extraordinary  minuteness  by 
the  Babylonians.  The  whole  structure  of  the  liver,  together  with 
the  gall,  bladder,  and  the  ducts,  was  analyzed,  and  to  every  part, 
every  line,  and  every  difference  of  appearance  a  separate  signifi- 
cance was  assigned.  Thus  hepatoscopy,  demanding  long  training 
and  influencing  political  action  (and,  doubtless,  calling  for  ingenuity 
and  tact  in  interpretations),  assumed  great  importance  in  Baby- 
lonia and  Assyria ;  and  it  was  hardly  less  important  among  the 
Etruscans,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Romans.1  It  is  held  by  some 
scholars  that  Babylonia  was  the  original  home  of  the  developed 
science,  whence  it  passed  into  Greece  and  Italy.2  It  may  be  rec- 
ognized in  Babylonia  in  the  third  millennium  B.C.,  and  there  is 
no  improbability  in  the  supposition  that  Babylonian  influence 
was  felt  in  Asia  Minor  and  Eastern  Europe ;  but,  in  view  of  the 
number  of  possibly  independent  centers  of  culture  in  this  region 
in  ancient  times  and  the  paucity  of  data,  the  question  may  be 
left  open. 

920.  Other  parts  of  the  animal  bodies  also  were  employed  in 
divination.  Tylor3  mentions  the  examination  of  the  bones  of  the 
porcupine  among  North  American  Indians,  the  color  giving  indica- 
tions as  to  the  success  of  hunting  expeditions.  The  shoulder  blade, 
when  put  into  the  fire,  showed  by  splits  in  it  various  kinds  of  for- 
tune. The  heart  was  of  less  significance  in  ancient  thought  than 
the  liver,  it  being  of  less  size,  and  its  function  in  the  circulation 

1  Bouche-Leclercq,  Histoirc  de  la  divination  dans  Pantiquite  ;  Daremberg  and 
Saglio,  Dictionnaire  dcs  antiquites  grecques  el  romaines,  s.v.  Haruspi'ces;  Fowler, 

The  Religious  Experience  of  {lie  Roman  People,  Index,  s.v.  Haruspices. 

2  M.  Jastrow,  "The  Liver  in  Antiquity"  {University  of  Pennsylvania  Medical 
Bulletin,  190S)  and  Religion  Dabyloniens  und ' Assyriens.         3  Primitive  Culture,  i,  124. 


420     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

of  the  blood  not  being  known.  The  brain  also  did  not  come, 
until  a  comparatively  late  period,  to  be  regarded  as  the  seat  of 
the  intellect.1 

921.  From  these  external  signs  we  may  now  pass  to  consider 
divinatory  facts  derived  from  men's  inward  experience. 

Dreams.  The  importance  attached  all  over  the  world  to  dreams 
as  presages  is  a  familiar  fact.  It  would  appear  that  among  savage 
peoples  a  dream  is  regarded  as  representing  an  historical  fact,  the 
actual  perception  of  an  occurrence  or  a  situation.  It  is  believed 
that  the  mysterious  inward  thing,  the  soul,  endowed  with  peculiar 
power,  is  capable,  during  sleep,  of  leaving  the  body  and  wandering 
to  and  fro ; 2  why,  then,  in  its  journeys,  should  it  not  be  able  to 
see  the  plans  of  friends  and  enemies,  and  in  general  to  observe  the 
course  of  events  ?  We  do  not  know  the  nature  of  savage  logic  in 
dealing  with  these  visions  of  the  night,  but  some  such  line  of 
reasoning  as  this,  it  seems  probable,  is  in  their  minds.  The  soul, 
they  hold,  is  an  entity,  possessing  intellectual  powers  like  those  of 
the  ordinary  living  man  —  it  sees  certain  things,  and  its  knowledge 
becomes  the  possession  of  the  man  when  he  awakes.  Thus  the 
soul  in  dreams  is  a  watchman,  on  the  lookout  for  what  may  help 
or  harm  the  man.  Perhaps  there  is,  even  in  low  tribes,  a  vague 
feeling  that  it  has  extraordinary  powers  of  perception ;  whether 
such  a  feeling,  if  it  exists,  is  connected  with  a  belief  that,  during 
sleep,  the  soul  is  freed  from  the  limitations  of  the  everyday  corporeal 
man  we  are  not  able  with  our  present  data  to  say.3  Savages  often 
follow  the  suggestions  made  in  dreams4  (particularly  when  they 
are  vivid)  and  are  confirmed  in  their  faith  by  occasional  fulfillments 
of  predictions  ;  the  mind,  working  during  sleep  on  the  observations 
made  by  day,  may  sometimes  fall  on  situations  that  afterwards 
really  appear,  and  a  few  such  realizations  are  sufficient  to  establish 
a  rule  or  creed. 

1  See  above,  §  28.  The  skull  is  employed  as  a  means  of  divination  (Haddon, 
Head-hunters,  p.  91  ff.).  2  See  above,  §  24. 

3  Cf.  Roscher,  Lexikon,  article  "  Oneiros,"  col.  904. 

4  J.  H.  King,  The  Supernatural,  i,  168  ff . ;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  121  ff., 
440  f. ;  Howitt,  Native  Tribes  of  South-East  Australia,  p.  436  ;  Mrs.  K.  Langloh 
Parker,  The  Euahlayi  Tribe,  pp.  28,  83  f. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  421 

922.  This  naive  conception  of  dreams  as  products  of  the  soul's 
perception  of  realities  survives  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  among 
higher  tribes  and  nations,  but  finally  gives  way,  when  some  sort  of 
theistic  construction  is  reached,  to  the  view  that  they  are  sent  im- 
mediately by  deities.  An  approach  to  this  view  appears  in  North 
America  when,  for  example,  a  Pawnee  Indian  sees  in  a  dream  some 
being  who  gives  him  important  information,  though  in  the  folk-tales 
nothing  is  said  of  the  source  of  the  dream.1  A  step  in  advance  ap- 
pears in  the  belief  of  the  Ashanti,  according  to  which  the  existence 
of  a  tutelary  family  deity  is  indicated  in  a  dream  ; 2  it  is,  however, 
not  clear  whether  or  not  they  hold  that  the  tutelary  deity  has  himself 
suggested  the  dream.  In  the  higher  religions  a  dream  is  often  sent 
by  a  patron  deity  as  a  prediction  or  for  guidance  in  a  coming  emer- 
gency. Doubtless  it  was  only  in  the  case  of  specially  distinct  dreams 
and  such  as  related  to  important  matters  that  attention  was  paid  to 
them  —  the  deity  intervened  only  in  affairs  that  called  for  his  special 
direction.  Examples  are  numerous  in  the  history  of  the  great  nations 
of  antiquity.  The  Egyptian  King  Merneptah  in  a  time  of  great 
danger  had  a  dream  in  which  the  god  Ptah  appeared  to  him  and 
bade  him  banish  fear ; 3  and  the  Hebrew  Yahweh  is  represented 
as  having  sent  dreams  to  a  king  of  Egypt  (probably  in  the  interests 
of  the  Hebrews)  to  warn  him  of  a  coming  famine.4  The  Assyrian 
Ashurbanipal  was  favored  with  special  communications  from  Ishtar, 
and  the  god  Ashur  in  a  dream  ordered  Gyges,  King  of  Lydia,  to 
submit  to  the  Assyrian  king.5  In  some  documents  of  the  Pentateuch 
Yahweh  regularly  announces  his  will  in  dreams  to  both  Hebrews 
and  non-Hebrews ;  °  and  a  Hebrew  writer  of  a  later  time  (the 
third  or  second  century  B.C.)  represents  the  God  of  Israel  as 
giving  Nebuchadrezzar  an  outline  of  the  history  of  the  rise  and 
fall  of  the  kingdoms  of  Western  Asia  and  Greece.7  A  god  might 
employ  a  dream  for  a  less  worthy  purpose :  Zeus  sends  a  dream 
to  Agamemnon  to  mislead  him  and  thus  direct  the  issue  of  the 


1  Dorsey,  The  Skidi  Pawnee,  Index,  s.v.  Dreams.  2  Ellis,  Ts/ii,  p.  90. 

3  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  468,  and  see  p.  558.  4  Gen.  xl  f. 

5  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  349  f. 

6  Gen.  xx,  3  ;  xxviii,  12  ;  xxxi,  11  ;  xxxvii,  5.  "  Dan.  ii,  iv. 


422     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

war.1  So  important  for  life  did  the  Greeks  conceive  the  dream 
to  be  that,  as  it  would  seem,  they  personified  it.2 

Incubation.  Divine  direction  by  dreams  was  not  always  left  to 
chance.  The  custom  arose  of  sleeping  near  a  shrine  (engkoimesis, 
incubation)  where,  doubtless,  after  appropriate  ritual  preparation 
the  god  was  expected  to  signify  his  will  in  a  dream  (his  generally 
friendly  feeling  was  assumed  and  the  dream  would  be  of  the  nature 
of  an  answer  to  prayer).  This  was  one  of  the  means  employed  by 
Saul  when  he  desired  to  learn  what  would  be  the  issue  of  the  im- 
pending battle  with  the  Philistines.3  In  Greece,  and  later  in  Italy, 
the  most  famous  shrine  of  incubation  was  that  of  Asklepios  (Aescula- 
pius), which  was  widely  resorted  to  and  came  to  exert  a  good  moral 
influence.4  The  renown  of  the  shrine  was  doubtless  increased  by 
the  fact  that  Asklepios  was  a  god  of  healing.5 

923.  As  a  dream  was  often  obscure  the  services  of  a  trained 
interpreter  became  necessary  in  order  that  the  dream  might  be 
effective.  The  interpreters  were  magicians,  priests,  or  sages 6  — 
men  in  intimate  association  with  deities  and  acquainted  with  their 
modes  and  vehicles  of  revelation  ; 7  dreams  thus  became  equivalent 
to  oracular  responses.  An  interpreter  would  become  famous  in  pro- 
portion to  the  number  of  fulfillments  of  his  interpretations,  and  his 
god  would  share  in  the  glory  of  his  renown.8  Of  the  particular 
conditions  through  which  certain  men  and  certain  shrines  attained 
special  fame  we  have  few  details. 

1  Iliad,  ii,  i  ff.  So  Yahweh,  by  a  lying  spirit,  sends  Ahab  to  his  death  (i  Kings, 
xxii,  19  ff.)  and  deceives  the  prophet,  who  misleads  the  people  (Ezek.  xiv,  9).  The 
theory  of  these  ancient  writers  was  that  a  deity,  like  an  earthly  king,  had  a  right  to 
use  any  means  to  gain  his  ends.  2  Cf.  article  "  Oneiros  "  in  Roschers  Lexikon. 

3  1  Sam.  xxviii,  6.  The  other  means  used,  it  is  said,  were  the  urim  (urim  and 
thummim)  and  prophets.   These  all  failing,  the  king  had  recourse  to  necromancy. 

4  See  article  "Asklepios  "  in  Roscher's  Lcxikon. 

5  See  the  description  in  Pater's  Marias  the  Epicurean. 

6  A  god  might  send  a  dream  to  a  seer  for  the  benefit  of  some  other  person.  So 
Ishtar  spoke  to  Assurbanipal  through  the  dream  of  a  seer  (George  Smith,  History 
of  Assurbampal,  p.  123  f.). 

~  Jastrow,  Religion  Babylonicns  und  Assyriens  ;  Dan.  ii,  2  ff.  ;  Deut.  xiii,  1  ;  Gard- 
ner and  Jevons,  Greek  Antiquities,  p.  258  ;  Aust,  Religion  der  Rbmcr,  Index,  s.v. 
Traum,  Traumdeutung ;  Roscher,  Lexikon,  article  "  Oneiros." 

8  So  it  was  in  the  case  of  magicians  and  prophets  generally ;  cf.  Ezek.  xxxix,  21  ; 
Isa.  xliii,  9. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION 


423 


Oneiromancy,  in  unorganized  form,  was  studied  in  very  early 
periods  of  religious  life.  It  shared  in  the  general  advance  of  thought, 
and  in  the  course  of  time  a  traditional  science  of  the  explanation 
of  dreams  arose.  There  were  records  of  experiences,  particularly 
of  notable  fulfillments,  and  it  became  possible  to  make  lists  of 
dreams  with  interpretations  ;  *  these  were  written  down  and  passed 
on  from  generation  to  generation,  increasing  in  volume  as  they 
went.  Such  manuals  have  played  no  inconsiderable  part  in  the  life 
of  the  people.2 

924.  Ordeals.  Divination  has  played  an  important  part  in  civil 
life  as  a  means  of  determining  the  guilt  or  innocence  of  an  accused 
person.  From  very  early  times  ordeals  of  various  sorts  have  been 
devised  for  securing  a  judicial  opinion  when  ordinary  means  of 
investigation  have  failed.  One  of  the  simplest  methods  is  to 
require  an  accused  person  to  swear  that  he  is  innocent,  the  belief 
being  that  the  god  will  avenge  false  swearing  with  immediate  and 
visible  punishment.3  This  method  is  employed  by  the  Ashanti : 4 
the  accused  is  required  to  drink  a  certain  decoction ;  if  he  is 
made  sick  by  it  this  is  proof  of  his  innocence ; 5  and  if  there  be 
a  question  between  two  men,  and  one  after  drinking  is  made  sick, 
the  other  is  regarded  as  guilty,  and  executed.  On  the  Lower 
Congo  the  accused  swallows  a  pill  made  of  a  bark  said  to  be 
poisonous ;  if  he  soon  vomits  it  he  is  declared  innocent,  if  not, 
he  is  adjudged  guilty.6  A  similar  procedure  was  employed  in 
Samoa : 7  standing  in  the  presence  of  representatives  of  the  vil- 
lage god,  the  suspected  person  laying  his  hand  on  the  object 
wishes  that  if  he  is  guilty  he  may  speedily  die.  Among  the  Hill 
people  of  Ceylon  also  this  custom  exists.  Ordeals  in  Loango  are 
described  by  Purchas.8 


1  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  404,  and  German  ed.,  ii,  Index. 

2  Dream-books  exist  at  the  present  day.   Those  who  believe  in  the  predictive 
power  of  dreams  regard  them  as  messages  from  God  or  as  products  of  telepathy. 

3  The  Nandi  invoke  a  skull  as  divine  witness  (Hollis,  The  Xandi,  p.  76  f.). 

4  Ellis,  Tshi,  chap,  xviii. 

5  Apparently  because  he  is  thus  shown  to  be  unsupported  by  any  evil  spirit. 

6  Frobenius,  Childhood  of  Man,  p.  190  ff.  "  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  184. 
8  Purchas,  Pilgrimage,  ed.  Ravenstein,  pp.  56  f.,  59  f. 


424     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

925.  Among  the  ancient  nations  the  earliest  example  of  an 
ordeal  occurs  in  the  code  of  Hammurabi  (about  2000  B.C.).  Here 
the  accused  is  thrown  into  the  sacred  water,  and  if  not  drowned 
is  declared  innocent ;  he  is  protected  by  the  deity.1  The  same 
principle  appears  in  the  old  Hebrew  ordeal :  when  a  woman 
was  accused  of  unfaithfulness  to  her  husband  the  accused  was 
made  to  drink  sacred  water;  if  she  was  innocent  no  bad  con- 
sequences followed ;  if  she  was  guilty  she  died.'2  In  India, 
where  various  tests  by  fire,  water,  and  food  have  been  and 
are  employed,  the  decision  is  sometimes  as  in  the  Hebrew  pro- 
cedure ;  sometimes  (when  the  accused  is  thrown  into  the  water) 
the  principle  (found  elsewhere  abundantly)  is  recognized  that  it 
is  the  innocent  person  that  suffers  and  the  guilty  that  is  unin- 
jured.3 The  ordeal  as  a  civil  process  continued  in  Europe  until 
the  Middle  Ages.  In  the  submersion  in  water  of  a  woman  sus- 
pected of  being  a  witch  the  principle  of  decision  was  the  same 
as  is  now  practiced  in  Ashantiland  and  India  —  if  the  woman 
was  drowned  it  was  a  sign  that  she  was  innocent,  but  if  she  rose 
unharmed  from  the  water  she  was  adjudged  guilty  and  was  put 
to  death.4 

926.  The  imprecation  is  similar  to  the  ordeal.  A  man  invokes 
the  curse  of  the  deity  on  his  enemy,  and  it  is  supposed  that  such 
curse  will  bring  its  punishment.5  A  curse  was  regarded  as  an 
objective  thing,  which  reached  its  object  quite  independently  of 
guilt  or  innocence.6  In  Morocco  a  conditional  curse  is  pronounced 
and  is  supposed  to  become  effective  if  the  wrong  complained  of 
is  not  righted.7  These  ordeals  and  imprecations  were  sometimes 
effective  in  fixing  guilt ;  the  dread  of  incurring  the  wrath  of"  the 
deity  sometimes  forced  a  guilty  person  to  confess,  or  his  dread  of 

1  "  Code  of  Hammurabi"  (§§  2,  132),  by  C.  H.  W.  Johns,  in  Hastings's  Dictionary 
of  the  Bible,  extra  volume.         2  Numb.  v.         3  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  275  ff. 

4  She  was  rejected  by  the  sacred  water;  cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  Ike  Semites, 
2d  ed.,  p.  179:  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  i,  140.  Cf.  Ellis,  Yoruba,^.  190  f . ;  id.,  Tshi, 
pp.  198,  201.  5  Turner,  Samoa,  p.  1S4. 

6  Similarly,  a  blessing  once  uttered  remains  effective  and  cannot  be  recalled  ;  so 
in  the  story  of  Isaac  blessing  Jacob  and  Esau,  Gen.  xxvii. 

1  Westermarck,  '"L-'ar"  in  Anthropological  Essays  presented  to  Tylor;  cf.  his 
Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  Index,  s.v.  Curses. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION 


425 


the  punishment  produced  signs  of  guilt.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is 
probable  that  just  as  often  innocent  persons  were  convicted  and 
punished  through  such  tests. 

With  all  such  systems  of  signs  may  be  compared  the  Chinese 
quasi-science  called  Fung-Shui  Q  Wind  and  Water '),  which  deter- 
mines proper  sites  for  graves  and  for  temples  and  other  buildings 
by  observations  of  the  influences  of  the  sky  (moisture,  warmth, 
wind,  thunder),  of  waters  and  hills,  and  of  the  earth,  and  by  the 
study  of  various  magical  combinations.  Thus,  it  is  held,  it  is 
possible  in  important  undertakings  to  obtain  the  favor  and  sup- 
port of  the  good  Powers  of  the  world.  The  site  of  a  grave, 
affecting  the  future  of  the  dead,  is  of  especial  significance,  and 
the  Fung-Shui  interpreters,  regularly  trained  men,  levy  what  con- 
tributions they  please  from  surviving  relatives,  sometimes  pur- 
posely prolonging  their  investigations  at  a  ruinous  cost  to  the 
family  of  the  deceased.1  The  system  sprang  from  the  Chinese 
conception  of  heaven  and  earth  as  the  controlling  Powers  of  the 
world  ;  but,  neglecting  the  higher  side  of  this  conception,  it  has 
sunk  into  a  fraudulent  trade.'2 

927.  Oracles.  As  men  went  to  the  tents  or  palaces  of  chiefs 
or  kings  for  guidance  in  ordinary  matters,  so  they  went  to  the 
dwelling  places  of  superhuman  Powers  for  direction  in  matters 
that  were  beyond  human  ken.  Such  appeal  to  divine  or  quasi- 
divine  beings  began  early  in  religious  history.  In  Borneo  and 
the  islands  of  Torres  Straits  the  abodes  of  skulls  are  places  from 
which  responses  are  obtained ; 3  speaking  heads  are  found  there 
and  elsewhere.  The  Sunthals  of  West  Bengal  have  the  ghost  of 
a  specially  revered  ancestor  as  a  dispenser  of  superhuman  knowl- 
edge.4   When  local  gods  arose  every  local  shrine,  it  is  probable, 

1  Hence  the  opposition  (now  disappearing)  to  lines  of  railway  and  telegraph, 
which  were  supposed  to  interfere  with  the  happy  influences  of  rivers  and  hills  and 
other  natural  features. 

2  De  Groot,  Religions  System  of  China  and  Development  of  Religion  in  China; 
and  his  article  "  Die  Chinescn  "  in  Saussaye,  Lehrbuch  der  ReligionsgeschiclUe.  Sec- 
above,  §  747  ff. 

3  Maddon,  Head-hunters,  pp.  42,  182  f. ;  on  the  sacredness  of  the  head  see  Frazer, 
Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  i,  362  ff. ;  Frobenius,  Childhood  of  Man,  chap.  xiii. 

4  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  532. 


426     IXTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

contained  an  oracle.1  The  shrines  of  the  great  gods  naturally 
acquired  special  prominence,  their  oracles  were  consulted  by  kings 
and  other  leaders  on  affairs  of  importance,  and  thus  came  to  exert 
a  great  influence  on  the  course  of  events.2  The  stars  also,  though 
they  had  no  earthly  habitations,  were  consulted  through  their  in- 
terpreters. Such  astrological  oracles,  as  used  by  men  like  Posi- 
donius,  the  teacher  of  Cicero,  might  be  morally  inspiring ;  but 
when,  at  a  later  time,  the  consultation  of  heavenly  bodies  fell 
into  the  hands  of  wandering  "  Chaldeans "  (who  might  be  of 
an}-  nation)  it  became  a  system  of  charlatanry,  and  thus  morally 
debasing.3 

The  greater  nations  of  antiquity  differed  considerably  among 
themselves  in  regard  to  the  part  played  in  their  lives  by  oracles. 
In  general,  the  organization  of  oracular  shrines  grew  in  proportion 
to  the  rise  of  manlike  gods  —  deities  whose  relation  to  men  was 
socially  intimate.  In  Egypt  such  shrines  were  not  of  prime  im- 
portance ; 4  the  functions  of  the  gods  were  mainly  governmental  — 
the  most  human  of  them,  Osiris,  became  an  ethical  judge  rather 
than  a  personal  friend.  The  pre-Mohammedan  Arabs  did  not 
create  great  gods,  and  their  resort  to  local  divinities  was  commonly 
in  order  to  ask  whether  or  not  a  proposed  course  of  action  was 
desirable  ;  the  answer  was  "  yes  "  or  "  no."  5  The  famous  warrior 
and  poet,  Imru'1-Kais,  desiring  to  go  to  war  to  avenge  his  father's 
death,  received  at  a  shrine  three  times  a  negative  answer,  where- 
upon, hurling  abusive  epithets  at  the  god,  he  exclaimed,  "  If  it 
were  your  father,  you  would  not  say  '  no.' "  Such  independence 
was  probably  rare ;  most  men  would  have  accepted  the  divine 
decision.  The  answer  of  the  Hebrew  oracle  was,  as  among  the 
Arabs,  "  yes  "  or  "  no  "  (by  urim  and  thummim)  —  the  gods  were 
remote,  and  the  oracle,  whose  minister  was  a  priest,  gradually 

1  So  when  Rebecca  wished  to  obtain  information  about  her  children,  soon  to  be 
born,  it  is  said  simply  that  she  went  to  inquire  of  Yahweh  (Gen.  xxv,  22),  as  if  there 
was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  a  shrine  in  the  neighborhood. 

2  Bouche-Leclercq,  Histoire  de  la  divination  dans  Pantiqnite,  ii,  250  ff. ;  iii. 

3  Cumont,  Lcs  religions  orient  ales  dans  le  paganisme  romain,  Eng.  tr.,  The 
Oriental  Religions  in  Roman  Paganism,  pp.  105,  124  f.,  168. 

4  Cf.  Steindorff,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  113  f. 

5  Wellhausen,  Rcstc  arabischen  Heidentnmes,  p.  126  ff. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  427 

yielded  to  the  prophet,  the  human  interpreter  of  the  deity.1 
The  Philistines  appear  to  have  had  well-organized  oracles ;  when 
King  Ahaziah  was  sick  he  sent  to  inquire  of  Baalzebub,  god  of 
Ekron,  whether  or  not  he  should  recover.2  Many  Babylonian  and 
Assyrian  deities  gave  oracular  responses  ; 8  it  is  not  known  whether 
the  shrines  were  resorted  to  by  the  people  at  large,  and  their  im- 
portance was  probably  diminished  by  the  great  role  played  by 
the  priestly  interpretation  of  omens,  whereby  the  will  of  the  gods 
was  held  to  be  clearly  revealed.  The  Romans  under  the  republic 
were  practically  independent  of  oracles  at  shrines :  in  household 
affairs  they  had  a  family  god  for  every  department  and  every 
situation,  and  for  State  matters  they  found  the  Sibylline  oracles 
sufficient.4  Later,  with  the  widening  of  the  horizon  of  religion, 
the  resort  to  Greek  and  other  oracular  shrines  became  general 
—  a  departure  from  the  old  Roman  constitution.5  The  greatest 
development  of  oracular  service  took  place  in  Greece.  The  Greek 
gods,  with  their  anthropomorphically  emotional  characters,  entered 
intimately  and  sympathetically  into  human  life,  communal  and  in- 
dividual. The  great  shrines  of  Zeus  at  Dodona  and  Apollo  at 
Delphi  were  centers  of  Hellenistic  religious  life,  and  there  were 
others  of  less  importance.6  Zeus,  as  head  of  the  pantheon,  natu- 
rally took  a  distinguished  place  as  patron  of  oracles ;  and  Apollo's 
relation  to  music  and  inspiration  may  account  in  part  for  the 
preeminence  of  his  oracular  shrine.  In  many  cases,  however, 
the  grounds  of  the  choice  of  a  particular  deity  as  oracle-giver 
escape  us. 

1  1  Sam.  xiv,  36  ff. ;  xxiii,  2  ;  xxx,  7  f. ;  Isa.  lxv,  1  ;  Ezek.  xxxiii,  30  ff. 

2  2  Kings,  i,  2.  The  prophet  Elijah,  who  was  a  zealous  Yahwist,  was  very  angry 
with  the  king  for  applying  to  a  foreign  deity ;  but  evidently  the  Philistine  shrine 
enjoyed  a  greater  reputation  than  any  in  Israel. 

3  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and ,  Issyria,  Index,  s.v.  Oracles. 

4  Cf.  Aust,  Religion  der  Rb'mer,  Index,  s.v.  Orakcl;  see  below,  §  933  ff. 

5  Friedlander,  Roman  Life  and  Manners  under  the  Early  Empire  (Kng.tr.),  p.  3, 
129  ff.;  Fowler,  Religions  Experience  of  the  Roman  People^  p.  339. 

6  Cicero,  De  Divinatione,  i,  34,  37  f . ;  Plutarch,  De  Pythiae  Oraculis  and  l>e  De- 
feetu   Oraculorum\    Gardner  and  Jevons,    Greek   Antiquities,   Index,   s.v.   Oracles \ 

Bouche-Leclercq,  Histoire  de  la  divination  dans  Pantiguite,  Index,  and  Stengel  and 
Oehmichen,  Die  grieehischen  Sa&ralaltertiimer,  Index:  Encyclopedia  Britannica, 
nth  ed.,  article  "Oracle." 


428      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

The  human  demand  for  divine  guidance  long  maintained  the 
influence  of  oracles  everywhere,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  in 
general  they  furthered  what  was  good  religiously  and  socially. 
They  were  bonds  of  union  between  communities,  and  their 
authoritative  role  would  naturally  force  on  them  a  certain  sense 
of  responsibility.  As  to  the  character  of  the  mouthpieces  of  the 
gods  and  the  material  on  which  they  based  their  answers  to 
questions  we  have  not  the  means  of  forming  a  definite  opinion. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  official  persons  were  sometimes 
sincere  in  the  belief  that  they  were  inspired  —  such  is  the  testi- 
mony of  observers  for  both  savage  and  civilized  communities  —  and 
many  modern  instances  bear  out  this  view.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  is  reason  to  suppose  that  pretense  and  fraud  often  crept 
into  the  administration  of  the  oracles.  When  the  questions  were 
known  beforehand  the  responses  may  have  been  based  on  in- 
formation that  came  from  various  quarters  and  on  insight  into 
the  particular  situation  about  which  the  inquiry  was  made.  When 
the  questions  were  not  known  beforehand  we  are  in  the  dark  as 
to  the  source  of  the  answers.  Sometimes,  doubtless,  they  were 
happy  or  unhappy  guesses ;  sometimes  they  were  enigmatical  or 
ambiguous  in  form,  so  that  they  could  be  made  to  agree  with  the 
events  that  actually  occurred.  In  most  cases  the  authorities  would 
know  how  to  explain  the  issue  in  such  a  way  as  to  maintain  the 
credit  of  the  oracle.  The  best-known  and  the  most  impressive  of 
the  utterers  of  oracles  is  the  priestess  of  Apollo  at  Delphi,  the 
Pythia.  She  occupied  a  commanding  position  in  the  Hellenic 
world  (and  beyond  it),  such  as  was  enjoyed  by  few  persons  of 
the  time.1  She  was  invested  with  special  sanctity  as  the  dispenser 
of  divine  guidance  to  the  Western  world  (to  nations  and  indi- 
viduals). It  was  required  of  her  that  she  be  morally  and  cere- 
monially pure,  and  she  had  to  undergo  a  special  preparation  for 
the  delivery  of  her  message.  The  manner  of  her  revelation  did 
not  differ  from  that  of  similar  officials  in  noncivilized  communi- 
ties —  she    spoke    in    a    condition    of    ecstasy ;     she    is   the    best 

1  On  the  position  of  women  in  ancient  religion  cf.  Farnell's  article  in  Archiv  fiir 
Rcligions-wissctiscJiaft,  1 904. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  429 

representative  of  the  intimate  union  of  the  diviner  and  a  great 
god,  a  union  that  tended  to  give  dignity  and  wisdom  as  well  as 
authority  to  the  oracular  utterance.1  She  was,  thus,  in  the  best 
position  for  exerting  a  good  influence  on  the  world  of  her  time. 
How  far  the  oracles  of  Apollo  and  other  deities  furthered  the 
best  interests  of  religion  it  may  be  difficult  to  say  —  the  data 
for  an  exact  answer  are  lacking.  Socially  they  were  useful  in 
maintaining  a  certain  unity  among  peoples,  and  they  may  some- 
times have  upheld  justice  and  given  judicious  advice,  but  they 
were  always  exposed  to  the  temptation  of  fraud. 

Necromancy.  While  in  ancient  times  the  dead  were  everywhere 
placated  by  gifts  and  were  sometimes  worshiped,  the  consultation 
of  them  for  guidance  seems  to  have  been  relatively  infrequent. 
The  attitude  of  existing  lower  tribes  toward  ghosts  varies  in  dif- 
ferent places,2  but  the  predominant  feeling  seems  to  be  fear; 
these  tribes  have  not  accomplished  that  social  union  between 
themselves  and  the  departed  without  which,  as  it  appears,  the 
living  do  not  feel  free  to  apply  to  the  latter  for  information  con- 
cerning things  past,  present,  and  future.3  Savage  and  half-civilized 
peoples  depend  for  such  information  on  divination  by  means  of 
common  phenomena  (omens)  and  on  the  offices  of  magicians  and 
soothsayers,  and  references  in  published  reports  to  necromantic 
usages  among  them  are  rare  and  vague.  But  among  civilized 
peoples  also  application  to  the  dead  is  not  as  frequent  as  might 
be  expected;  there  is  still  fear  of  ghosts,  and  the  part  assigned 
in  early  times  to  spirits  in  the  administration  of  human  life  has 
been  given  over  to  gods  —  family  divinities  and  the  great  oracular 
deities  supply  the  information  that  men  need.  There  are  few  signs 
of  dependence  on  necromancy  in  China,  India,  Persia,  and  Rome. 
The  Babylonian  mythical  hero  Gilgamesh  procures  (through  the 
aid  of  an  Underworld  god)  an  interview  with  his  dead  friend 
Eabani  in  order  to  learn  the  nature  of  the  life  below  ; 4  this  story 

1  Gruppe,  Griechische  Myihologie,  pp.  102,  105  ;  Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States, 
iv,  187  ff.  2  See  above,  §§  362,  366. 

'  3  See  article  "  Ancestor-worship  »  and  articles  on  lower  tribes  in  Hastings,  Ency- 
clopedia of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

4  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  511. 


430     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

points,  perhaps,  to  necromantic  usages,  but  in  the  extant  literature 
there  are  no  details  of  such  usages.  Application  to  the  dead  is  cer- 
tified for  the  old  Hebrews  not  only  by  the  story  of  Saul's  consulta- 
tion of  Samuel  (which,  though  a  folk-story,  may  be  taken  to  prove  a 
popular  custom)  but  by  a  prophetic  passage  condemning  the  prac- 
tice.1 Teraphim  were  employed,  probably,  for  divination,  but  there 
is  no  proof  that  they  were  connected  with  necromancy.2  After  the 
sixth  century  B.C.  we  hear  nothing  of  consultation  of  the  dead  by  the 
pre-Christian  Jews.  Among  the  Greeks  also  such  consultation  seems 
not  to  have  enjoyed  a  high  degree  of  favor.  There  were  oracles  of 
the  dead  (of  heroes  and  others),  but  these  were  inferior  in  impor- 
tance to  the  oracles  of  the  great  gods 3  and  gradually  ceased  to  be 
resorted  to.  Where  the  practice  of  incubation  existed,  answers  to  in- 
quiries were  sometimes,  doubtless,  held  to  come  from  the  dead,  but 
more  commonly  it  was  a  god  that  supplied  the  desired  information. 
The  stages  in  the  history  of  necromantic  practice  follow  the 
lines  of  growth  of  psychical  and  theistic  beliefs.  There  was  first 
the  era  of  spirits  when  men  were  doubtful  of  the  friendliness  of 
ghosts,  and  held  it  safer  in  general  to  trust  to  soothsayers  for 
guidance  in  life.  Then,  when  the  gods  took  distinct  shape,  they 
largely  displaced  ghosts  as  dispensers  of  knowledge  of  the  future, 
and  these  latter,  standing  outside  of  and  in  rivalry  with  the  circle 
of  State  deities,  could  be  approached  only  in  secret  —  necromancy 
became  illicit  and  its  influence  was  crippled.  And  when,  finally, 
in  the  earlier  centuries  of  our  era,  the  old  gods  disappeared,  the 
rise  of  monotheistic  belief  was  accompanied  by  a  transformation 
of  the  conception  of  the  future  of  the  soul ;  it  was  to  be  no 
longer  the  inert  earthly  thing  of  the  old  theories  but  instinct  with 
a  high  life  that  fitted  it  to  be  the  companion  of  divine  beings  and 
the  sharer  of  their  knowledge  and  their  ideals.4    This  conception 

1  i  Sam.  xxviii ;  Isa.  viii,  19. 

2  Ezek.  xxi,  26  [21]  (King  Nebuchadrezzar  divines  by  teraphim). 

3  Bouche-Leclercq,  Histoire  de  la  divination  dans  Vantiquite,  iii,  363  ff. ;  Darem- 
berg  and  Saglio,  Dictionnaire  dcs  antiquites  grecques  el  romaines,  article  "  Divination," 
p.  308. 

4  1  Cor.  xv,  49 ;  2  Cor.  v,  8  ;  Cumont,  Astrology  and  Religion  among  the  Greeks 
and  Romans^  lecture  vi. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  43 1 

led  to  the  belief  in  the  possibility  of  a  nonmagical  friendly  inter- 
course with  the  departed,  who,  it  was  assumed,  would  be  willing 
to  impart  their  knowledge  to  their  brethren  on  earth.  Saints  have 
thus  been  appealed  to,  and  it  has  been  attempted  in  recent  times 
to  enter  into  communication  with  departed  kin  and  other  friends. 

928.  The  office  of  diviner,  though  it  has  always  been  an  in- 
fluential one,  has  followed  in  its  development  the  general  course 
of  social  organization,  becoming  more  and  more  specialized  and 
defined.  In  the  simplest  religions  the  positions  of  magician  and 
diviner  are  frequently  united  in  one  person.  In  Greenland  the 
Angekok,  acting  as  the  interpreter  or  mouthpiece  of  a  super- 
natural being  from  whom  men  learn  how  they  may  be  fortunate, 
foretells  the  condition  of  the  weather  and  the  fortunes  of  fishing.1 
A  similar  combination  of  the  offices  is  found  among  the  Ainu, 
and  apparently  among  the  Cakchiquels,  among  whom  the  divining 
function  is  said  to  have  related  particularly  to  war.2 

929.  There  was,  however,  as  is  remarked  above,  a  tendency 
to  invest  the  priest  with  the  function  of  divination.  The  Arabian 
kahin  was  a  soothsayer,  the  Hebrew  kohen  was  a  priest.3  The 
Yorubans  have  a  special  god  of  divination  whose  priest  is  the 
soothsayer  of  the  community.  In  Ashantiland  priests  and  priest- 
esses, who  are  exceedingly  influential  and  powerful,  owe  a  great 
deal  of  their  importance  to  their  ability  to  explain  signs  and 
omens,  especially  to  discover  guilt  and  to  foretell  events.4  In  the 
elaborate  divinatory  ceremonies  of  the  Ahoms  of  Southeastern 
Asia,  the  conductors,  who  are  highly  considered  in  the  commu- 
nity, are  priests ;  these  people  are  partly  Hinduized,  but  probably 
retain  much  of  their  ancient  religious  forms.5  A  noteworthy 
specialization  of  functions  is  found  among  the  Todas  of  Southern 
India,  who  distinguish  the  diviner  from  the  magician,  the  prophet, 
and  the  dairyman.     The  diviner  is  inspired  by  a  god,  gives  his 

1  Cranz,  Greenland,  i,  192  ff.  ;   Rink,  Danish  Greenland,    p.  142  f. 

2  Brinton,  Cakchiquels,  p.  47. 

3  Cf.  Noldeke,  article  "Arabs  (Ancient)"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion 
and  Ethics,  i,  667,  671.  4  Ellis,  Yomba,  p.  56  ff. ;  id.,  Tshi,  p.  124  ff. 

5  P.  R.  Gurden,  article  "Ahoms"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics. 


432     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

utterances  in  an  ecstatic  state,  and  for  the  most  part  limits  him- 
self to  the  explanation  of  the  origin  of  misfortunes.1  It  would  be 
a  matter  of  interest  to  trace,  if  it  were  possible,  a  history  of  this 
specialization,  but  the  early  fortunes  of  the  Toda  religion  are 
without  records  and  can  only  be  surmised.  In  ancient  Gaul 
the  diviner,  it  is  said,  was  distinguished  from  the  priest  and  the 
prophet.2  Where  divination  is  the  duty  of  the  priestly  body, 
there  is  sometimes  a  differentiation  within  this  body,  some  per- 
sons devoting  themselves  specifically  to  soothsaying;  so  among 
the  Babylonians,  where  this  function  was  most  important.3 

930.  Among  the  old  Hebrews  the  soothsaying  function  is 
connected  not  only  with  priests  but  also  with  prophets.4  The 
priest  was  the  official  diviner,  employing  the  urim  and  thummim. 
Prophets  and  dreamers  are  mentioned  together  as  persons  of  the 
same  class  and  as  sometimes  employing  their  arts  for  purposes 
contrary  to  the  national  religion;  various  classes  of  diviners  are 
mentioned  as  existing  among  the  Israelites  in  the  seventh  cen- 
tury B.C.,  but  the  distinctions  between  them  are  not  given.5  From 
a  statement  in  Isaiah  ii,  6,  it  may  perhaps  be  inferred  that  some 
form  of  divination  was  imported  into  Israel  in  the  eighth  century 
or  earlier  from  the  more  developed  Philistines  and  from  the  coun- 
tries east  of  the  Jordan ; 6  and  the  passage  just  referred  to  in  Deu- 
teronomy probably  reveals  Assyrian  influence.  While  the  Egyptian 
documents  have  much  to  say  of  magic,  they  give  little  information 
with  regard  to  the  existence  of  a  class  of  diviners ;  but  it  appears, 
according  to  a  Hebrew  writer,7  that  the  art  of  divination  might 
belong  to  any  prominent  person  —  Joseph  is  represented  as  divin- 
ing from  a  cup. 

931.  The  greatest  development  of  the  office  of  the  diviner  in 
ancient  times  was  found  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans.8    The 

1  Rivers,  The  Todas,  p.  249  ff. 

2  A.  Bertrand,  La  religion  des  Gaulois,  pp.  257,  259,  263. 

3  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  341. 

4  On  Hebrew  divination  see  articles  "  Divination  "  in  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible,  and  in  the  Encyclopedia  Biblica.  5  Deut.  xiii,  1  ;  xviii,  10. 

6  The  Hebrew  text  is  doubtful,  and  its  meaning  is  not  clear ;  cf.  Gray,  "  The  Book 
of  Isaiah,"  in  The  International  Critical  Commentary.  "'  Gen.  xliv,  5. 

8  Cf.  Bouche-Leclercq,  Histoire  de  la  divination  dans  Vantiqidte,  ii,  1  ff.,  62  ff. 


JA  /  GIC  AND  1)1 1  rINA  T10N  433 

Greek  word  mantis  appears  to  have  been  a  general  term  for  any 
person,  male  or  female,  who  had  the  power  of  perceiving  the  will 
of  the  gods.  The  early  distinction  between  the  mantis  and  the 
prophetes  is  not  clear.  Plato,  indeed,  distinguishes  sharply  between 
the  two  terms  : 1  the  mantis,  he  says,  while  in  an  ecstatic  state 
cannot  understand  his  own  utterances,  and  it  is,  therefore,  the 
custom  to  appoint  a  prophctes  who  shall  interpret  for  him  ;  some 
persons,  he  adds,  give  the  name  mantis  to  this  interpreter,  but 
he  is  only  a  prophctes.  We  find,  however,  that  the  terms  are 
frequently  used  interchangeably ;  thus  the  Pythia  is  called  both 
mantis  and  prophetis.  Whatever  may  have  been  the  original  sense 
of  these  terms,  the  office  of  diviner  in  Greece  was  in  the  main 
separate  from  that  of  priest.  It  is  found  attached  to  families  and 
was  hereditary.  It  was  recognized  by  the  State  from  an  early 
time  and  became  more  and  more  influential.  According  to  Xeno- 
phon  Socrates  believed  in  and  approved  divination.2  Plato  held 
that  it  was  a  gift  of  the  gods,  and  that  official  persons  so  gifted 
were  to  be  held  in  high  esteem.  • 

932.  In  Rome,  in  accordance  with  the  genius  of  the  nation,  sooth- 
saying was  at  a  comparatively  early  period  organized  and  taken  in 
charge  by  the  State.  There  were  colleges  of  augurs,3  standing  in 
various  relations  to  political  and  social  life,  having  their  heads  (chief 
augurs)  —  thus  in  their  organization  similar  to  the  priesthood,  but 
standing  quite  apart  from  this.  The  same  sort  of  organization  was 
established  in  the  Etruscan  office  of  haruspex 4  when  this  was  intro- 
duced into  Rome.  The  members  of  these  colleges  were  at  first 
Etruscans  and,  as  such,  looked  down  on ;  but  gradually  Roman 
youth  of  good  family  and  education  were  trained  for  the  duty,  and 
in  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Claudius  the  social  difference  between 
augurs  and  haruspices  seems  to  have  been  almost  eliminated.5 

1  Timcrus,  72. 

2  Xenophon,  Memorabilia,  i,  3,  4  :  to.  vtto  tujv  8eu>v  a-r}iJ.aLv6ix€va. 

3  Originally  diviners  from  the  flight  of  birds,  but  the  area  of  their  divinatory  func- 
tions was  gradually  extended.  See  W'issovva,  Religion  do-  Rb'mer,  p.  450  ff. :  Fowler, 
Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People,  lecture  xiii. 

4  Charged  with  the  interpretation  of  the  entrails  of  sacrificed  animals,  and  also  of 
lightning  and  portents.  5  Wissowa,  op.  cit.,  p.  474. 


434     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

933.  Sibyls.  In  the  old  Graeco-Roman  world  inspired  women 
played  a  great  role.1  The  belief  in  such  personages  goes  back  to 
the  old  conception  of  the  possession  of  human  beings  by  a  super- 
natural being,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  was  common  in  early 
forms  of  religion.  This  idea  assumed  various  shapes  in  Greece, 
and  in  the  course  of  time  the  inspired  women  were  connected 
with  various  deities.  In  the  Dionysus  cult  the  orgiastic  rites  (in 
which  women  took  a  chief  part)  seem  to  have  grown  up  from 
old  agricultural  ceremonies  in  which  the  spirit  or  god  of  vegeta- 
tion was  invoked  to  give  his  aid.  Such  ceremonies  naturally 
coalesced  here  as  elsewhere  with  the  license  of  popular  festivities. 
The  legends  connected  with  the  Dionysus  cult  introduced  savage 
features  into  the  rites,  as,  for  example,  in  the  story  of  Pentheus.2 
But  whatever  may  have  been  the  case  in  Thrace,  whence  the 
cult  came  to  Greece,  it  was  not  so  in  historical  times  in  Greece, 
where  the  celebrations  were  controlled  by  the  State.  These  ex- 
hibit then  only  the  natural  frenzy  of  excited  crowds  without  the 
element  of  divination. 

934.  The  development  of  the  role  of  women  as  representatives 
of  deities  is  illustrated  by  the  character  of  the  priestesses  of  oracular 
shrines.3  These,  like  the  Dionysiac  devotees,  are  seized  and  pos- 
sessed by  the  god,  and  speak  in  a  state  of  frenzy.  But  their 
frenzy  is  controlled  by  civilized  conditions.  It  exists  only  as  a 
preparation  for  divination ;  it  is  the  movement  of  the  god  in  them 
laboring  to  express  himself,  and  his  expression  is  couched  in  intel- 
ligible human  language.  The  priestess  is  a  part  of  an  organized  and 
humanized  cult  and,  as  such,  represents  to  a  certain  extent  the  ideas 
of  a  civilized  society.  The  Dionysiac  woman  yields  to  an  excess  of 
animal  excitement,  without  thought  for  society ;  the  priestess  feels 
herself  responsible  to  society.  A  similar  progress  in  civilized  feeling 
appears  among  the  old  Hebrews ;  the  incoherency  of  the  earlier 
prophets 4  gives  way  to  the  thoughtful  discourses  of  the  ethical 


1  Cf.  above,  §  895  f. 

2  This  story  (connected  with  Thebes)  appears  to  represent  some  sort  of  protest 
against  the  Dionysiac  cult  when  it  was  first  brought  to  Greece  ;  cf.  Roscher,  Lcxikon, 
article  "  Pentheus."  3  Cf.  above,  §  927.  4  1  Sam.  xix,  24  ;  cf.  Mic.  i,  S  ff. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  435 

leaders.1    The  manner  and  the  expression  of  revelation  always 
conform  to  existing  social  usages. 

935.  Of  a  still  different  character  is  the  figure  of  the  Sibyl, 
created  by  the  Greeks  and  adopted  by  the  Romans.2  She,  too, 
is  possessed  by  a  god  and  sometimes,  at  least,  raves  in  ecstasy ; 
but  she  does  not  officiate  at  a  shrine  and  is  not  controlled  by 
any  official  body.  She  dwells  in  a  cave  or  a  grotto,  has  her  life 
in  the  open  air,  and  gives  her  answers  on  the  leaves  of  the 
forest.  She  represents  the  divine  voices  that  are  heard  by  early 
men  everywhere  in  the  world ;  in  the  myth,  when  she  displeases 
Apollo  she  is  condemned  to  fade  finally,  after  a  long  life,  into  a 
voice.3  She' is  not,  like  the  Pythia,  an  actual  human  being  —  she 
is  never  seen  except  in  legends  and  myths.  She  is  a  creature  of 
Greek  imagination,  the  embodiment  of  all  the  divine  suggestions 
that  come  to  man  from  the  mysterious  sounds  around  him. 

936.  The  historical  origin  of  the  fully  developed  figure  of  the 
Sibyl  is  obscure.4  In  the  literature  she  appears  first  in  the  sixth 
century  B.C.  along  with  the  Pythia,  but  she  was  then  thought  of 
as  well  established  and  ancient.  She  is  not  mentioned  by  Homer 
or  Hesiod,  but  their  silence  is  not  proof  positive  that  the  concep- 
tion of  the  character  did  not  exist  in  their  time ;  they  may  have 
had  no  occasion  to  mention  her,  or  the  figure  may  have  been  so 
vague  and  unimportant  as  not  to  call  for  special  mention.  For 
such  a  figure  it  is  natural  to  assume  a  long  development,  the 
beginnings  of  which  are,  of  course,  enveloped  in  obscurity.  How- 
ever this  may  be,  the  Sibyl  appears  to  have  received  full  form 
under  the  religious  impulse  of  post-Homeric  times,  under  con- 
ditions the  details  of  which  are  not  known  to  us. 

937.  In  the  scant  notices  of  the  figure  that  have  been  pre- 
served the  indications  are  that  there  was  originally  only  one 
Sibyl  —  she  was  the  mythical  embodiment  of  divine  revelation,  as 
the  muse  was   the  embodiment  of   intellectual  inspiration.    At  a 


1  Their  "visions  "  sometimes  show  literary  art  (Ezek.  xl  ff. ;  Zech.  l-vm). 

2  Roscher,  Lexikon,  article  "  Sibylla." 

3  That  is,  she  was  not  to  be  tolerated  as  a  rival  of  the  great  oracular  god. 

4  Cf.  Wissowa,  Religion  der  Rb»ur,  pp.  239,  462  ff. 


436     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

later  time  many  sibyls  came  into  being ;  Varro  reckons  ten  and 
other  authors  give  other  numbers.  Apparently  a  process  of  local 
differentiation  went  on ;  when  the  idea  of  the  revealer  was  once 
established  and  the  historical  beginnings  of  the  figure  were  un- 
known, many  a  place  would  be  ambitious  to  have  so  noble  a 
figure  domiciled  in  its  midst.  One  line  of  tradition  referred  the 
original  Sibyl  to  the  Ionian  Erythrae,  and  when  the  Sibylline 
Books  were  burned  in  the  year  83  B.C.,  it  was  to  Erythrae  that 
the  Romans  sent  to  make  a  new  collection  of  oracles.  Whatever 
the  original  home  of  the  figure,  one  of  the  most  famous  of  the 
Sibyls  was  she  of  Cumae.1  She  was  regarded  as  being  very  old, 
and  she  was  probably  a  permanent  diviner  of  that  place.  It  was 
from  Cumae,  according  to  the  legend,  that  the  Sibylline  Books 
came  to  Rome.  The  story  of  how  they  were  first  offered  to  King 
Tarquinius  Priscus,  who  refused  to  pay  the  price,  how  three  of 
them  were  destroyed  and  then  three  more,  and  how  finally  the 
required  price  was  paid  for  the  remaining  three,  points  to  a  belief 
that  the  material  of  the  oracles  had  once  been  larger  than  that 
which  came  to  Rome.  There  is  also  the  assertion  that  the  utter- 
ances of  the  Sibyl  were  at  that  time  recorded  in  books.  This  fact 
suggests  that  oracular  responses  had  long  been  known  at  Cumae, 
and  that  some  persons,  of  whose  character  and  functions  we 
know  nothing,  had  from  time  to  time  written  them  down,  so 
that  a  handbook  of  divination  had  come  into  existence. 

938.  In  whatever  manner  the  oracles  were  first  brought  to 
Rome  it  is  certain  that  they  were  accepted  by  the  Romans  in 
all  good  faith,  and  they  came  to  play  a  very  important  part  in 
the  conduct  of  public  affairs.  They  were  placed  in  the  temple  of 
Jupiter  Capitolinus  under  the  charge  of  two  men  (duumviri),  and 
later  a  college  was  established  for  their  guardianship.  They  were 
used  in  Rome  especially  for  guidance  in  national  calamities :  when 
the  existence  of  the  city  was  threatened  by  the  victorious  career 
of  Hannibal,  it  was  the  Sibyl  who  prescribed  the  importation  of 
the  worship  of  the  Phrygian  Great  Mother.  It  is  certain  that  the 
books  were  manipulated  by  political  and  religious  leaders  for  their 

1  Bouche-Leclercq,  Histoirc  de  la  divination  dans  Pantiguite,  ii,  Index,  s.v.  Clones. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  437 

own  purposes,  old  dicta  being  recast  and  new  ones  inserted  as 
occasion  required ; x  but  probably  this  procedure  was  unknown  to 
the  people  —  it  does  not  appear  that  it  affected  their  faith.  Even 
Augustine  speaks  of  the  theurgi  as  daemones,  and  cites  a  passage 
from  the  Erythraean  Sibyl  as  a  prediction  of  Christ.2 

939.  To  the  poetical  books  which  have  come  down  to  us  under 
the  name  of  Jewish  Sibylline  Oracles  no  value  attaches  for  the 
history  of  the  Sibyl  except  so  far  as  they  are  an  indication  of  the 
hold  that  the  conception  kept  on  men's  minds.3  They  are  a  product 
of  the  passion  for  apocalyptic  writing  that  prevailed  among  the  Jews 
and  Christians  in  Palestine  and  Alexandria,  from  the  second  cen- 
tury B.C.  into  the  third  century  of  our  era.  The  fame  of  the  Graeco- 
Roman  Sibyl  was  widespread,  and  to  the  Jews  and  Christians  of 
that  time  it  seemed  proper  that  she  should  be  made  to  predict  the 
history  of  Judaism  and  Christianity ;  possibly  it  was  believed  that 
such  a  prophetess  must  have  spoken  of  this  history.  Naturally  the 
Jewish  Sibyl  has  a  Biblical  genealogy  —  she  is  the  daughter  of  Noah. 

940.  Her  utterances,  given  in  heavy  Greek  hexameters,  have 
been  preserved  for  us  in  a  great  mass  of  ill-arranged  fragments, 
with  many  repetitions,  indicating  them  as  the  work  of  various 
authors.  What  we  have  is  clearly  only  a  part  of  what  was  pro- 
duced, but  the  nature  of  the  whole  body  of  pseudo-predictions  is 
easily  understood  from  the  material  that  has  been  preserved.  They 
follow  the  history  down  to  the  author's  time,  giving  it  sometimes 
an  enigmatical  form,  and  the  future  is  described  in  vague  phrases 
that  embody  the  guesses  or  hopes  of  the  writer.  It  seems  certain 
that  all  of  the  existent  material  of  these  oracles  is  from  Jewish 
and  Christian  hands.  Even  when  Greek  mythical  stories  are  in- 
troduced, as  in  the  euhemeristic  description  of  the  origin  of  the 

1  Wissowa,  Religion  der  Romcr,  p.  463  ;  Fowler,  Religions  Experience  of  the 
Roman  People,  p.  339. 

2  Augustine,  Dc  Civitate  Dei,  x,  27  (in  connection  with  Vergil's  verses,  Eclogues, 
iv,  13  f.)  ;  xxviii,  23  (the  initial  letters  in  Sibylline  Oracles,  viii,  268-309,  giving  a  title 
of  Christ).  So  Eusebius,  in  his  report  of  the  Oration  of  Constantine,  xviii ;  cf.  Lactan- 
tius,  Divinae  lnstitution.es \  lib.  i,  cap.  vi. 

3  Oracula  Sibyllina,  ed.  Alexandre  (Greek  text,  with  Latin  tr.)  ;  ed.  Friedlieb 
(Greek  text,  with  German  tr.  and  additions  by  Volkmann)  ;  ed.  Rzack  (critical  Greek 
text);  Terry,  The  Sibylline  Oracles  (Eng.  tr.,  blank  verse). 


438      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Greek  dynasties  of  gods  in  the  third  book,  the  whole  is  conceived 
under  the  forms  of  Jewish  or  Christian  thought.  The  Sibyllines 
are  quoted  by  Josephus  and  by  many  Christian  writers  from 
Justin  Martyr  to  Augustine  and  Jerome  and  later.  They  give  a 
picture  of  certain  Jewish  and  Christian  ideas  of  the  period  and  of 
the  opinions  held  concerning  certain  political  events,  but  other- 
wise have  no  historical  value.  An  illustration  of  the  fact  that  the 
belief  in  them  as  real  inspired  prediction  continued  to  a  late  time 
is  found  in  the  hymn  Dies  Irae,  in  which  the  Sibyl  is  cited  along 
w "ith  David  as  a  prophet  of  the  last  judgment.  The  whole  history 
of  the  figure  is  a  remarkable  illustration  of  the  power  of  a  written 
record,  held  to  be  a  divine  revelation,  to  impress  men's  minds  and 
control  their  beliefs  and  actions. 

941.  While  divination  has  played  a  great  part  in  the  religious 
history  of  the  world,  it  has  rarely  brought  about  important  political 
or  religious  results.1  The  exceptions  are  the  great  Greek  oracles 
of  Dodona  and  Delphi  and  the  Roman  Sibylline  Books ;  to  these 
last,  as  is  observed  above,  the  Roman  people  owed  the  introduction 
of  some  important  religious  cults.  But  for  ordinary  procedures 
priests  and  other  officiators  everywhere  were  disposed  to  give 
favorable  responses,  especially  to  the  questions  of  prominent  men ; 
and  military  and  other  political  enterprises  were  usually  in  such 
form  that  they  could  not  conveniently  be  modified  in  accordance 
with  unfavorable  omens  —  the  omen  had  to  be  favorable.  There 
were  exceptions,  but  this  was  the  general  rule.  The  science  of 
divination,  however,  did  good  service  in  fostering  the  observation 
of  natural  phenomena,  and  especially  in  the  development  of  astron- 
omy and  anatomy.  In  connection  with  these  observations  it  called 
into  being  bodies  of  men  —  corporations  that  in  process  of  time 
became  centers  of  general  culture. 

942.  On  the  ethical  side  it  may  be  doubted  whether  divination 
has  been  an  advantage  to  society.    It  has  produced  much  deceit, 


1  On  the  attitude  of  early  Greek  philosophers  (Pythagoras,  Democritus,  Emped- 
ocles,  Thales,  Xenophanes.)  toward  divination,  and  the  relation  of  the  latter  to  the 
idea  of  divine  providence,  see  Bouche-Leclercq,  Htstoire  dc  la  divination  dans  Van- 
tiqnite,  i,  29  ff. 


MAGIC  AND  DIVINATION  439 

unconscious  and  conscious.  Whether  diviners  believed  or  did  not 
believe  in  their  science,  the  result  was  bad.  If  they  did  not  believe, 
they  fostered  a  system  of  deceit.  Whether  there  was  real  belief  or 
not,  the  practice  of  divination  encouraged  false  methods  and  turned 
men's  minds  away  from  immediate  appeals  to  the  deity,  and  in 
general  from  a  spiritual  conception  of  religion.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  helped  to  maintain  the  external  apparatus  of  religion,  which  for 
ancient  life  was  an  important  thing.  Like  all  great  institutions  its 
effects  have  been  partly  good,  partly  bad.  It  belongs  to  a  lower 
stage  of  human  thought  and  tends  to  disappear  gradually  before 
enlightenment. 


CHAPTER   IX 
THE   HIGHER  THEISTIC   DEVELOPMENT 

943.  The  preceding  survey  of  early  religious  customs  and  insti- 
tutions discloses  a  recognizable  unity  in  diversity.  Everywhere  we 
find  the  same  classes  of  sacred  objects  and  the  same  methods  of 
approaching  them.  Whether  the  supernatural  Powers  are  conceived 
of  as  animals  or  as  plants  or  as  what  we  call  inanimate  things,  or, 
in  more  advanced  thought,  as  ghosts  or  spirits  or  gods,  they  are 
held  to  be  factors  in  human  life,  are  regarded  with  awe,  are  dreaded 
and  avoided,  or  are  welcomed  as  helpers,  and  in  any  case  are  pro- 
pitiated by  gifts  and  other  marks  of  respect.  The  potency  inherent 
in  things  is  the  object  of  observation,  its  laws  are  studied,  and  it  is 
used  for  purposes  of  life.  The  diversities  in  the  form  of  ceremonies, 
in  the  conception  of  the  characters  of  the  Powers,  and  in  the  general 
tone  and  coloring  of  worship  arise  from  economic  and  cultural  dif- 
ferences, and  are  as  numerous  as  the  tribes  of  men ;  the  unity  of 
cults  is  a  result  of  the  psychological  unity  of  the  human  race  —  the 
religious  needs  of  men  in  all  stages  of  culture  are  the  same ;  there 
is  nothing  in  the  highest  religious  systems  that  is  not  found  in  germ 
in  the  lowest. 

944.  The  earliest  expression  of  religious  feeling,  as  is  pointed 
out  above,1  is  in  the  form  of  ceremonies.  But  ceremonies  tend  to 
group  themselves  round  the  persons  of  divine  beings.  Gods,  as 
the  controllers  of  human  fortunes  here  and  hereafter,  naturally  be- 
come the  centers  of  religious  thought.  Their  characters  and  func- 
tions reflect  the  ideals  of  their  worshipers,  and  all  ritualistic  and 
other  usages  and  all  doctrines  concerning  the  relations  between 
gods  and  men  and,  in  general,  all  ideas  concerning  the  physical 
and  moral  constitution  of  the  world  attach  themselves  perforce  to 

1  See  Chapter  iii. 
440 


THE  HIGHER   THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       441 

the  divine  embodiments  of  these  ideals.    Thus,  in  one  sense,  the 
history  of  the  gods  is  the  history  of  religion.     From  the  earliest 
times  up  to  the  present  the  efforts  of  men  have  been  directed 
toward  defining  the  divine   Powers  that  have  been  supposed  to 
stand  behind  all  phenomena.   The  problem  of  harmonizing  diverse 
divine  activities  has  always  been  a  serious  one,  and  its  solution  has 
been  sought  in  various  ways.   Gods  have  been  locally  limited,  every 
one  to  his  own  human  tribe,  district,  or  nation  ;  or,  when  they  dwell 
together  and  their  spheres  of  influence  are  larger,  they  have  been 
given  free  scope  of  action,  and  the  resulting  contradictions  in  human 
affairs  have  been  accepted  as  a  part  of  the  mysterious  nature  of 
things  ;  or  order  has  been  sought  in  simplification  —  headship  has 
been  ascribed  to  some  one  deity,  and  the  relation  between  him  and 
the  subordinate  divinities  has  been  somehow  explained  or  has  been 
left  unexplained.    The  process  of  simplification  has  gone  steadily 
on  with  the  result  that  the  great  religious  systems  of  the  world  fall 
into  groups  distinguished  from  one  another  by  their  conceptions  of 
the  divine  government  of  the  world,  whether  as  pluralistic  or  as 
unitary.    The  development  of  these  different  conceptions  may  be 
traced  here  in  outline,  though  the  absence  of  exact  data  and  the 
variety  and  complexity  of  the  formative  influences  (economic,  philo- 
sophical, political,  and  other)  necessarily  make  it  difficult  or  impos- 
sible to  account  satisfactorily  for  all  details.    The  groups  to  be 
considered  are  polytheism,  dualism,  and  monotheism,  to  which  may 
be  added  brief  mention  of  systems  that  do  not  recognize  a  personal 
divine  ruler  of  the  world. 


Polytheism 

945.  The  first  stage  in  the  final  theistic  history  of  the  world  up 
to  the  present  day,  polytheism,  appears  in  all  the  great  civilized 
nations.  The  great  polytheistic  systems  have  much  in  common  : 
for  example,  protection  of  civil  order  and  morality  by  a  god ;  promi- 
nence of  the  god  of  a  ruling  tribe  or  family  or  of  a  great  city ; 
disposition  to  embody  certain  general  facts,  as  war,  love,  learning, 
in  divine  figures ;  tendency  to  make  some  god  universal.    On  the 


442     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

other  hand,  they  differ  among  themselves  in  certain  regards  :  in  the 
degree  of  specialization  and  differentiation  of  divine  functions,  and 
in  the  stress  that  they  lay  on  the  various  departments  of  human 
life.  Their  agreements  and  disagreements  seem  to  be  in  some 
cases  independent  of  racial  relations  and  climatic  conditions ;  their 
roots  lie  so  far  back  in  history  that  we  have  no  means  of  tracing 
their  genesis  and  development. 

946.  The  Egyptian  and  the  Semitic  peoples  were  parts  of  the 
same  original  stock,1  and  their  systems  of  social  and  political  organ- 
ization were  substantially  identical  —  the  government  in  its  devel- 
oped form  was  monarchical,  but  tribal  and  other  locally  isolated 
forms  of  organization  maintained  themselves  to  a  certain  extent  — 
and  their  literary  and  artistic  outputs  do  not  differ  materially.  We 
might,  then,  expect  their  religions  to  be  in  the  main  identical.  In 
fact  they  agree  in  having  a  relative  meagerness  of  theistic  differ- 
entiation, but  in  some  important  points  they  are  far  apart.  The 
Semites  were  indifferent  to  the  future  life,  the  Egyptians  con- 
structed it  elaborately  (in  this  point  taking  precedence  among  the 
ancients)  ;  the  Semites  were  averse  to  divinizing  human  beings,  for 
the  Egyptians  kings  were  divine.  In  this  last  point  Egypt  resembles 
China,  but  in  other  respects  is  at  a  world-wide  remove  from  it. 
Other  peoples  thought  of  their  gods  as  having  relations  with  beasts ; 
the  Egyptians  alone,  among  civilized  nations,  worshiped  the  living 
animal.2  Some  Greek  writers  regarded  Egypt  as  the  religious  mother 
of  Greece,  but  Hellenic  cults  show  little  resemblance  to  Egyptian. 

947.  The  Hebrews  had  the  general  Semitic  theistic  and  cultic 
scheme,  but  in  their  capacity  (in  their  higher  development)  to  con- 
tent themselves  with  one  deity,  and  in  their  elaboration  of  ritualistic 
forms  and  institutions,  were  more  closely  akin  to  the  Aryan  Persians 
than  to  any  Semitic  community,  and  borrowed  freely  from  them. 
The  resemblance  between  the  two  cults,  however,  was  confined  to 
these  two  points ;  in  other  respects  they  were  very  different. 

948.  The  linguistic  identity  of  the  Indo-European  peoples  does 
not  carry  with  it  theologic  identity.    The  theistic  scheme  of  India 

1  Cf.  Barton,  Semitic  Origins^  chap.  i. 

2  Cf.  Breasted,  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient  Egypt. 


THE  HIGHER  THE  I  STIC  DEVELOPMENT 


443 


is  more  nearly  allied,  in  the  disposition  to  grant  equality  of  signifi- 
cance to  all  gods,  to  the  Egyptian  and  Semitic  than  to  the  Persian 
and  the  Greek,  yet  the  tone  and  color  of  the  Hindu  deities  do 
not  resemble  the  tone  and  color  of  the  Egyptian  and  Babylonian 
divinities. 

Even  between  Greece  and  Rome  the  religious  differences  are 
great.  Greece  stands  alone  in  its  artistic  creation  of  divine  forms. 
Rome  rather  resembles  the  Hebrews  in  its  sobriety  of  theistic 
creations,  and  particularly  is  like  the  Chinese  in  the  purpose  to 
make  religion  subservient  to  the  interests  of  the  family  and  the 
State  ;  Roman  religion,  like  Chinese,  might  be  described  as  a  body 
of  public  and  private  ceremonies  to  which  gods  were  attached.1 
The  Roman  gods,  however,  are  much  more  definite  figures  than 
the  Chinese  ;  the  latter  are  either  unimportant  folk-gods  or  powers 
of  nature. 

949.  The  contrast  between  Mexico,  with  its  considerable  number 
of  departmental  gods,  some  of  them  savage,  and  Peru,  whose  quasi- 
monotheistic  system  is  relatively  mild,  is  striking.  But  the  origin  of 
these  two  peoples  (who  perhaps  are  made  up  of  different  sets  of 
tribes)  is  involved  in  obscurity,  and  it  is  uncertain  whether  or  not  we 
should  expect  a  greater  resemblance  between  their  cults. 

950.  The  differentiation  in  the  theistic  scheme  of  the  Teutons, 
especially  the  Scandinavians,  is  noteworthy.  Several  of  their  deities, 
particularly  Wodan  (Odin),  Thor,  and  Loki,  are  well-developed 
persons,  and  these  and  some  others  do  not  differ  materially  in 
character  from  the  earlier  corresponding  Hindu  and  Greek  gods. 
A  comparison  between  the  Teutonic  figures  and  the  Celtic  and 
Slavic  would  be  pertinent  if  we  knew  more-  of  the  character  of 
these  last ;  but  the  information  about  them  is  slight." 

951.  The  extent  of  the  anthropomorphization  of  gods  in  any 
system  may  be  measured  by  the  richness  and  refinement  of  its 
mythology.    When  the  gods  live  apart  from  men,  being  conceived 


1  Fowler,  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People^  chaps,  i,  xvi. 

2  Bertrand,  La  religion  des  Gaulois ;  Rhys,  Celtic  1 1  cat  hoi  Join;  Usener,  Gotter- 
namen\  articles  "  Celts  "  and  "  Aryan  Religion"  in  Hastings,  Encychpcedia  of  Reli- 
gion and  Ethics. 


444 


INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


of  mainly  as  transcendent  Powers,  or  when  they  are  not  fully  de- 
veloped men,  there  is  little  room  for  the  play  of  social  emotions 
and  for  the  creation  of  biographies  of  individual  deities.  It  is  the 
humanized  god  that  has  emotional  life,  and  it  is  in  this  mythical 
life  that  the  religious  feeling  of  the  worshiper  is  expressed  with 
greatest  fullness  of  detail. 

952.  The  development  of  mythology  through  all  its  gradations 
of  fullness  and  fineness  can  be  traced  in  the  religious  systems  of 
the  world.1  Where  there  is  no  recognizable  worship  there  is,  of 
course,  no  mythology.  This  is  the  case  in  Australia,  in  Pygmy 
lands,  in  Tierra  del  Fuego,  in  parts  of  New  Guinea,  and  perhaps 
elsewhere.'2  Scarcely  above  these  are  parts  of  Central  and  Southern 
Africa,  the  countries  of  the  Bantu,  the  Hottentots,  and  the  Bush- 
men.3 A  feeble  mythological  invention  appears  among  the  Zulus, 
whose  conception  of  gods  is  indistinct ; 4  and  the  Masai  and  the 
Nandi,  who  are  somewhat  farther  advanced  in  the  construction  of 
deities,  show  mythopceic  imagination  in  a  single  case  only  (the 
famous  myth  of  the  embrace  of  the  earth  and  the  sky),  and  this  is 
perhaps  borrowed.5  Along  with  these  we  may  place  the  Todas 
whose  theogonic  conceptions  appear  to  have  been  cramped  by 
their  buffalo  cult,  and  their  mythical  material  is  small  and  vague.6 

953.  A  somewhat  higher  stage  of  mythopoetic  development  is 
represented  by  peoples  of  Oceania  and  North  America.  The  myths 
are  still  prevailingly  cosmologic  and  sociologic,  but  the  beginning 
of  biographical  sketches  of  supernatural  Powers  is  visible.  The 
Melanesian  Qat  and  the  Polynesian  Maui  are  on  the  border  line 
between  culture-heroes  and  gods,  but  they  are  real  persons,  and 
their  adventures,  while  they  describe  origins,  are  also  descriptions 
of  character.     Hawaii  and   Borneo  have  departmental  gods  and 

1  Cf.  the  sketch  given  above,  Chapter  vii ;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture)  Frazer,  Golden 
Bough,  2d  ed.,  passim. 

2  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  and  Northern  Tribes  of 
Central  Australia  ;  Howitt,  Native  Tribes  of 'South-East  Australia;  Quatrefages,  The 
Pygmies ;  Hyades  and  Deniker,  Mission  scientifique  du  cap  Horn ;  Seligmann,  The 
Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea. 

3  Fritsch,  Die  Eingeborenen  Siid-Afrika's  ;  article  "  Bantu  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclo- 
pedia of  Religion  and  Ethics.  4  Callaway,  The  Amcczulu.  5  See  above,  §  837. 

6  Rivers,  The  Todas. 


THE  HIGHER  TH EI  STIC  DEVELOPMENT       445 

a  body  of  stories  about  them.1  Certain  tribes  of  Redmen  have  not 
only  divine  genealogical  systems  but  also  narratives  resembling  the 
Melanesian  in  character,  the  line  between  myth  proper  and  folk-lore 
being  often  hard  to  trace.2  The  stories  fall  into  more  or  less  well- 
defined  groups,  and  of  the  Coyote  and,  less  definitely,  of  certain 
other  personages  biographies  might  be  written. 

954.  The  half-civilized  peoples  of  Madagascar,  West  Africa 
(Dahomi,  Ashanti,  Voruba),  the  Malay  Peninsula,  and  Southern 
India  (Khonds)  have  more  coherent  figures  and  stories  of  divine 
personages.3  Here  something  like  living  human  beings  appear, 
though  there  is  crudeness  in  the  portraiture,  and  the  interest  is 
chiefly  in  the  history  of  origins.  The  Malayan  and  Khond  figures 
are  especially  noteworthy,  but  are  not  free  from  the  suspicion  of 
influence  from  higher  religions. 

955.  True  literary  mythology  is  found  only  in  civilized  peoples, 
and  among  these  a  gradation  is  recognizable.  We  have  first  the 
stage  of  culture  represented  by  the  Japanese,  the  Finns,  the  Mexi- 
cans, and  the  Peruvians,  with  fairly  well-developed  gods,  who  have 
emotions  and  histories.  In  this  group  Japan  takes  the  lowest 
place ; 4  it  is  chiefly  in  the  figures  regarded  as  deified  men  that 
definiteness  of  character  and  human  warmth  are  found.  Japanese 
theogony  was  depressed  by  the  interest  of  the  people  in  family  and 
State  organization ;  the  gods,  though  civilized,  are  vague  personal- 
ities. The  Finnish  literary  mythical  material,  given  in  the  Kalevala, 
has  a  highly  humanized  coloring  and  is  worked  up  into  a  coherent 
story ;  the  social  system  revealed  in  the  myths  is  superior  in  many 
regards  to  that  of  the  Redmen,  but  the  theistic  scheme  is  crude.5 


1  Codrington,  The  Melanesians ;  W.  Ellis,  Polynesian  Researches  ;  Williams  and 
Calvert,  Fiji ;  Turner,  Samoa ;  Kramer,/)/'*  Samoa- Inseln;  Taylor,  New  Zealand; 
H.  Ling  Roth,  The  Natives  of  Sarawak  and  British  North  Borneo. 

2  Brinton,  The  LencLpe  ;  Matthews,  Navaho  Legends :  Dorsey,  Traditions  of  the 
Skidi  Pawnee;  Teit,  Thompson  River  Indians',  Boas,  The  Kwakiutl\  Dixon,  The 
Northern  Maidu  and  The  Shasta;  Journal  of  American  Folklore,  passim. 

3  Van  Gennep,  Tabon  et  toiemisme  a  Madagascar;  A.  B.  Ellis,  Ewe,  Tshi,  Yo- 
ruba;  Skeat,  Malay  Magic;  Skeat  and  Blagden,  Pagan  A'aees  of  the  Malay  Penin- 
sula ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India. 

4  Aston,  Shinto;  Knox,  Development  of  Religion  in  Japan, 

5  The  Kalevala;  Castren,  Finnisehc  Mytkologie, 


446     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

The  few  Mexican  myths  that  have  come  down  to  us  (probably 
only  the  remains  out  of  a  large  mass)  show  reflection  and  portray 
human  experiences.1  Both  in  Mexico  and  in  Peru  the  Spanish 
conquest  appears  to  have  destroyed  no  little  material  that,  if  pre- 
served, would  have  illustrated  the  mythical  constructions  of  these 
lands.  In  Peru,  further,  it  may  be  that  the  monotheistic  tinge  of 
the  State  religion  had  the  effect  of  banishing  subordinate  deities 
and  the  stories  connected  with  them.  For  whatever  reason  little 
is  known  of  its  mythical  material,  but  the  little  that  is  known 
shows  a  certain  degree  of  refinement.  South  America,  excluding 
Peru,  has  no  mythical  constructions  of  interest.2 

956.  Of  the  great  religions  the  Chinese  may  be  passed  by  in 
the  present  sketch ;  its  form  leaves  no  place  for  mythology ;  its 
virtual  monotheism  excludes  lesser  supernatural  figures  as  actors 
in  the  drama  of  human  life.3 

957.  The  Persian  cosmogonic  myths  are  merely  statements  of 
great  facts  without  biographical  features.  In  the  hands  of  late 
writers  they  shaded  into  legendary  accounts  of  the  origin  of  the 
kingdom,  and  the  whole  was  colored  by  the  developed  Mazdaism. 
We  thus  have  theological  constructions  rather  than  true  myths.4 
The  few  mythical  stories  that  have  survived  play  an  insignificant 
part  in  the  religious  system  —  a  sort  of  result  that  is  to  be  ex- 
pected whenever  a  substantially  definite  monotheistic  conception 
has  been  reached. 

958.  Egypt  produced  a  couple  of  myths  of  great  interest.5  The 
story  of  Ra's  anger  with  men,  and  his  act  of  wholesale  destruction, 
belongs  in  the  group  of  myths  (in  which  flood  stories  and  others 
are  included)  the  motif  of  which  is  antagonism  between  gods  and 
men.   The  conception  of  such  antagonism  seems  to  go  back  to  the 

1  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Mexico  and  Conquest  of  Peru ;  Winsor,  Narrative  and 
Critical  History  of  America;  Brinton,  American  Hero-Myths,  Index;  Lang,  Myth, 
Ritual,  and  Religion,  Index,  s.vv.  Mexican  Divine  Myths  and  Peruvian  Myths. 

2  Ehrenreich,  My  then  and  Legenden  der  siidamericanischen  Urvolker. 

3  De  Groot,  Religious  Sy stein  of  China. 

4  The  Avesla;  Spiegel,  Eranisehe  Alterthumskunde,  vol.  ii,  bk.  iv,  chaps,  i,  ii ; 
De  Harlez,  Avcsta,  Introduction,  p.  lxxxiv  ff. ;   The  Shahnameh, 

5  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civilization,  p.  155  ff . ;  Steindorff,  Religion  of  the  Ancient 
Egyptians,  p.  106  ff. 


THE  HIGHER   THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       447 

early  opinion  that  all  misfortunes  were  caused  by  supernatural 
beings  ;  in  civilized  times  some  great  calamity  would  be  singled 
out  as  a  special  result  of  divine  anger,  and  imagination  would 
construct  a  history  of  the  event,  why  the  god  was  angry,  and  how 
he  was  appeased.  What  particular  occurrence  this  Egyptian  story 
refers  to  is  unknown. 

The  Osiris  myth  has  better  literary  form  and  more  cultic  signifi- 
cance.1 The  slaying  of  Osiris  by  Set,  Isis's  search  for  the  body  of 
her  husband,  and  the  role  of  the  young  Horus  as  avenger  of  his 
father  make  a  coherent  history.  Osiris  had  the  singular  fortune  of 
being  the  most  widely  popular  god  in  Egypt,  the  hero  of  a  romantic 
episode,  and  the  ethical  judge  of  men  in  the  Underworld.  The 
motif  of  the  myth  is  the  cosmic  struggle  between  life  and  death  ; 
the  actors  are  made  real  persons,  and  the  story  is  instinct  with 
human  interest.  No  great  cultic  association  like  the  Eleusinian 
mysteries  was  created  in  connection  with  it,  but  the  echo  of  the 
conception  appears  in  the  great  role  later  assigned  to  Isis. 

959.  All  Semitic  myths  of  which  we  have  records  are  cosmogonic 
or  sociologic  or,  in  some  late  forms,  theological  constructions.  It  is 
Babylonia  that  has  furnished  the  greater  part  of  the  material,  perhaps 
all  of  it.2  The  stories  preserved  give  little  or  no  portraiture  of 
divine  persons  —  it  is  always  cosmic  phenomena  that  are  described, 
and  gods  and  heroes  are  introduced  simply  as  actors.  The  purpose 
in  the  two  cosmogonic  poems  —  to  explain  the  reduction  of  the 
world  to  order  and  the  existing  constitution  of  earth  and  sky  —  is 
one  that  is  found  everywhere  in  ancient  systems  of  thought.  The 
Gilgamesh  epic,  a  collection  of  popular  usages  and  tales  without 
definite  unity,  is  contaminated  with  legend  ;  Gilgamesh  is  now  a 
god,  now  a  national  hero  ;  at  the  end,  however,  there  is  a  bit  of 
speculation  concerning  the  future  state  of  men.  Ishtar's  descent 
to  the  Underworld  is  a  pure  nature  myth  ;  Ishtar  and  the  goddess 
of  the  Underworld  are  real  persons,  yet  merely  attachments  to  the 

1  Plutarch,  Isis  and  Osiris;  Steindorff,  op.  cit.,  Index,  s.vv.  Isis  and  Osiris ;  Ro- 
scher,  Lexikon,  articles  "  Isis,"  "  Usire." 

-  R.  F.  Harper,  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  literature;  Jastrow,  Aspects  of  Reli- 
gious Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria \  Index,  s.v.  Myths. 


448      IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

fact.  The  seizure  of  the  tablets  of  fate  from  Bel  by  the  storm-god 
Zu  represents  some  natural  phenomenon  (perhaps  the  reign  of 
winter),  possibly,  also,  a  transference  of  headship  from  one  deity 
to  another.  The  story  of  Adapa  is  in  part  an  explanation  of  how 
men  came  to  lose  immortality.  There  is,  thus,  in  these  myths  a 
fairly  full  history  of  the  origin  of  the  large  facts  of  human  life, 
with  little  interest  in  the  personalities  of  the  divine  actors. 

Hebrew  mythical  material  is  in  general  identical  with  Babylonian ; 
its  Old  Testament  form  has  been  more  or  less  revised  by  late  mono- 
theistic editors.  The  two  cosmogonies  in  Genesis,  the  flood  story, 
and  the  dragon  of  chaos  (a  late  figure  in  the  Old  Testament a)  are 
merely  descriptions  of  cosmic  or  local  facts.  The  dispersion  at 
Babel  (not  now  found  in  Babylonian  records,  but  paralleled  else- 
where) deals  with  a  sociological  fact  of  great  interest  for  the 
Hebrews,  marking  them  off,  as  it  did,  from  all  other  peoples.2 
The  heroes  of  the  early  time3  belong  to  folk-lore,  probably  a 
mixture  of  myth  and  legend.  The  explanation  of  various  human 
experiences  in  the  Eden  story 4  appears  to  be  of  Hebrew  origina- 
tion ;  it  is,  however,  rather  a  late  theological  theory  than  a  myth. 
The  Syrian  and  Palestinian  Tammuz  (Adonis)  myth  is  identical  in 
general  form  with  the  Babylonian  myth  of  Tammuz  and  Ishtar.5 

960.  The  Indo-European  mythical  material  shows  an  advance 
over  the  Egyptian  and  Semitic  in  distinctness  and  fullness  of  life 
corresponding  to  the  distincter  individuality  of  the  Indo-European 
divine  personages.  These  are  not  mere  powers  in  the  world,  more 
or  less  identified  with  natural  forces  and  phenomena,  nor  a  collec- 
tion of  deities  substantially  identical  in  character  and  functions; 
they  have  grown  into  persons,  differing,  indeed,  in  the  degree  of 
individualization,  but  all  pronounced  personalities. 

1  Job  xxvi,  12  ;  Ps.  lxxxix,  n  [io]  ;  Isa.  li,  9.  2  Deut.  xxxii,  8  f. 

3  Gen.  iv,  17  ff. ;  v,  vi,  4  ;  Ezek.  xxxii,  27  (revised  text). 

4  Gen.  iii,  14  ff.    On  the  loss  of  immortality  see  above,  §  S34. 

5  On  the  ceremony  of  mourning  for  Tammuz  (Ezek.  viii,  14)  see  Jastrow,  Reli- 
gion of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  574  ff.;  Pseudo-Lucian,  De  Syria  Dca.  In  Babylo- 
nia the  ceremony  appears  to  have  been  an  official  lament  for  the  loss  of  vegetation 
(the  women  mourners  being  attached  to  the  temple)  ;  in  Syria  (Hierapolis)  it  took 
on  orgiastic  elements  (perhaps  an  importation  from  Asia  Minor).  The  women  of 
Ezek.  viii  were  attached,  probably,  to  the  service  of  the  temple. 


THE  HIGHER  THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       449 

961.  Hindu  myths,  though  less  numerous  and  less  highly  elabo- 
rated than  the  Greek,  still  reflect  fairly  well  the  characters  of  certain 
divinities,  especially  Indra,  Agni,  the  Acvins,  the  Maruts,  and  some 
others!1  Indra,  particularly,  is  portrayed  in  detail,  so  that  he  is  as 
distinct  a  person  as  Ares  or  Mars.  Krishna  and  other  figures  in 
the  epics  live  human  lives  with  all  human  virtues  and  vices. 

962.  The  full  literary  form  of  the  myth  is  found  only  in  Greece. 
As  Zeus,  Apollo,  Athene,  Aphrodite,  and  others  are  well-defined 
personalities,  each  with  certain  intellectual  and  moral  characteristics 
and  with  a  unity  of  development,  so  the  stories  about  them  recount 
adventures  and  acts  that  form  biographical  unities ;  and,  as  these 
stories  are  of  diverse  nature,  some  reflecting  barbarous  periods, 
others  marked  by  refinement,  they  exhibit,  when  brought  together 
and  arranged  in  order  of  moral  or  intellectual  excellence  or  accord- 
ing to  their  geographical  or  ethnical  origin,  not  only  the  history  of 
the  gods,  but  also  the  development  of  Greek  religious  feeling.  Being 
the  embodiment  of  human  experiences,  they  lend  themselves  readily 
to  processes  of  allegorizing  and  spiritualizing.2 

963.  Roman  gods,  homely  figures,  occupied  with  agriculture 
and  affairs  of  State,  have  no  adventures  and  no  biographies.  The 
practical  Roman  mind  was  concerned  with  the  domestic  functions 
of  divine  beings,  and  the  Roman  genius  was  not  of  a  sort  to  con- 
ceive gods  as  individuals  leading  lives  filled  with  human  passions. 
Myths  do  not  figure  in  the  Roman  religious  scheme  except  as  they 
are  borrowed  from  Greece  or  from  some  other  land. 

964.  Teutonic  mythology  is  largely  cosmogonic  or  cosmologic, 
not  without  shrewd  portraitures  and  attractive  episodes,  but  never 
reaching  the  point  of  artistic  roundness  and  grace.3  The  adventures 
of  Odin,  Thor,  Loki,  and  other  divine  persons  reflect  for  the  most 
part  the  daring  and  savagery  of  the  viking  age,  though  there  are 

1  Barth,  Religions  of  India ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India ;  Macdonell,  Vedic  My- 
thology ;  Lang,  Myth,  Ritual,  and  Religion,  Index. 

2  This  is  true  of  all  mythical  and  legendary  creations  of  the  thought  of  communi- 
ties, but  in  an  especial  degree  of  the  Greek. 

3  Saussaye,  Religion  of  the  Teutons,  Index,  s.v.  Myths;  he  distinguishes  between 
the  earlier  and  the  later  stories;  R.  M.  Meyer,  Altgcnnanische  Religionsgesehichte, 
chaps,  iii,  iv. 


450     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

kindly  features  and  an  occasional  touch  of  humor.1  Loki  in  some 
stories  is  a  genuine  villain,  and  the  death  of  Balder  is  a  real  tragedy. 
The  great  cosmogonic  and  eschatological  myths  are  conceived  in 
grandiose  style.  The  struggle  between  gods  and  giants  is  in  its 
basis  the  widespread  nature  myth  of  the  conflict  of  seasons.  The 
overthrow  of  the  old  divine  government  (the  Twilight  of  the  Gods) 
and  the  rise  of  a  new  order  appear  to  have  a  Christian  coloring, 
but  the  belief  that  the  world  is  to  be  destroyed  may  be  old  Teutonic.2 

The  history  of  theistic  movements  in  civilized  peoples  shows  that 
the  effectiveness  of  a  polytheistic  system  as  a  framework  of  religious 
life  is  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  its  anthropomorphization  of 
deities,  that  is,  it  is  in  proportion  to  their  humanization  that  gods 
enter  into  intimate  association  with  human  experiences.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  true  that  the  tendency  toward  a  unitary  conception 
of  the  divine  government  of  the  world  is  in  inverse  proportion  to 
such  humanization  ;  the  more  definitely  aloof  from  men  the  gods 
have  stood  (as  among  the  Hebrews  and  the  Persians),  the  easier  it 
has  been  for  the  people  to  attach  themselves  to  a  single  deity  as 
all-sufficient.  The  Romans  form  no  exception  to  this  general  rule, 
for  though,  while  they  did  not  create  great  anthropomorphic  deities, 
there  was  yet  no  native  Roman  movement  toward  monolatry,  the 
place  of  such  deities  in  worship  was  taken  by  a  multitude  of  minor 
divine  patrons  who  presided  over  all  the  details  of  private  and 
public  life  and  satisfied  the  demand  for  divine  guidance. 

While  polytheism  has  assumed  various  forms,  differing  from  one 
another  in  elaboration  of  deities  and  in  general  cultural  charac- 
ter, it  has  had,  as  a  system,  a  distinctly  marked  place  in  human 
experience. 

965.  General  role  of  polytheism.  Polytheism  has  played  a  great 
role  in  the  religious  history  of  the  world.  Representing  in  general 
a  thoughtful  protest  against  the  earlier  shapeless  mass  of  spirits, 
it  expressed  more  definitely  the  belief  in  the  intellectual  and  moral 
divine  control  of  all  things.  It  flourished  at  a  time  when  there 
was   no   general  demand   in   human   thought   for  cooperation   in 

1  Folk-lore  and  legend  mingle  with  the  myths. 

2  See  R.  M.  Meyer,  op.  cit.,  p.  444  ff. 


THE  HIGHER  THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       451 

supernatural  Powers.  The  sense  of  variety  in  the  world  was  pre- 
dominant, corresponding  to  the  absence  of  cooperation  among  the 
tribes  and  nations  of  the  world;  the  apparently  isolated  character 
of  natural  phenomena  and  the  independence  of  the  nations,  each 
of  the  others,  seemed  to  men  to  demand  a  number  of  separate 
divine  agencies.  These  were  all  made  to  accord  with  the  external 
and  internal  condition  of  their  worshipers  and  met  the  demands 
of  life  in  that  they  represented  redemption,  salvation,  and,  in  gen- 
eral, all  blessings.  They  were  not  offensive  ethically  to  the  people 
for  the  reason  that  they  embodied  the  ethical  conceptions  and 
usages  of  their  time.  Thus  they  furnished  the  framework  for 
religious  feeling  —  they  secured  the  union  of  divine  and  human  in 
life,  brought  the  divine,  indeed,  into  most  intimate  contact  with  the 
human,  and  so  supplied  the  material  for  the  expression  of  pious 
feeling.  When  the  gods  were  represented  by  idols,  these  tended  to 
become  merely  the  symbols  and  reminders  of  their  divine  originals. 
The  elastic  character  of  this  theistic  system  permitted  the  widest 
variety  of  cults,  with  the  possibility  of  bringing  any  new  social 
tendency  or  idea  into  immediate  connection  with  a  divine  patron, 
so  that  human  life  became  religious  with  a  degree  of  intelligence 
and  intensity  that  has  perhaps  not  existed  under  any  other  system. 
966.  The  great  civilizations  of  the  ancient  world  arose  and  were 
developed  under  polytheism  —  many  noble  human  characters  and 
customs  and  institutions  were  created  under  the  dominance  of  this 
system  in  Babylonia,  Egypt,  Greece,  Rome,  and  elsewhere  —  that 
is  to  say,  human  instincts  and  aspirations  developed  freely  under 
a  theistic  organization  that  satisfied  in  general  the  intellectual  and 
moral  needs  of  the  time.  The  different  polytheistic  cults  of  the 
world  differed  considerably  in  intellectual  and  moral  value.  These 
differences  pertain  to  the  diversity  of  characteristics  among  the 
nations  of  the  world  and  are  to  be  studied  in  connection  with  the 
histories  of  the  various  peoples.  Here  it  is  sufficient  to  note 
the  general  position  which  polytheism  has  occupied  in  the  whole 
religious  development  of  the  world.1 

1  Even  in  great  modern  religions  nominally  monotheistic  a  virtual  polytheism 
continues  to  exist. 


452     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

967.  At  a  relatively  early  time,  however,  dissatisfaction  arose 
with  the  discordances  of  the  polytheistic  conception.  It  raised 
many  problems  and  failed  to  account  for  many  phenomena,  and 
efforts  were  made  to  systematize  and  simplify  the  conceptions  of 
the  divine  government  of  the  world.  These  efforts  took  the  shape 
of  dualism,  monotheism,  pantheism,  Buddhism,  Confucianism,  and 
later  tended  to  regard  the  supernatural  in  the  world  as  Ultimate 
Force  or  as  Moral  Ideal.  These  tendencies  may  be  examined  in 
the  order  just  given. 

Dualism 

968.  In  all  the  religious  systems  so  far  considered  the  existence 
of  human  suffering  is  assumed.  The  sole  object  of  religious  prac- 
tices, in  all  cults  except  the  highest,  has  been  to  secure  extrahuman 
or  superhuman  aid  and  comfort  in  the  ills  of  life.  There  has  been 
the  conviction,  for  the  most  part  implicit,  that  man  is  not  in  har- 
mony with  his  surroundings.  We  have  now  to  consider  those 
systems  of  religious  thought  in  which  the  existence  of  this  dishar- 
mony is  more  or  less  distinctly  announced  and  the  effort  is  made 
to  discover  its  source. 

The  conception  of  two  sets  of  Powers  in  the  world,  one  helpful 
and  the  other  harmful,  is  suggested  by  human  experience  and  by 
the  larger  observation  of  natural  phenomena,  and  it  is  found  all 
over  the  world,  among  low  communities  as  well  as  high,  perhaps 
in  all  tribes  of  men.1  Possibly  there  are  some  low  groups,  such  as 
the  Fuegians  and  the  African  Pygmies  in  which  the  conception 
does  not  exist ;  but  as  the  religious  ideas  of  these  low  groups  are 
yet  imperfectly  understood,  we  cannot  say  what  their  position  on 
this  point  is.  In  general,  for  the  lower  tribes  the  world  is  peopled 
by  spirits,  which  are  the  ghosts  of  the  departed  or  the  embodiment 
of  natural  forces,  and  the  feeling  has  been  that  these  are  some- 
times friendly,  sometimes  unfriendly.2  In  some  cases  the  hurtful 
spirits  stand  in  contrast  with  a  god  who  may  be  a  strict  ruler 

1  See  above,  §  683  ff. 

2  This  conception  survives  in  the  great  polytheistic  cults,  and  may  be  recognized 
in  the  later  religions  of  redemption. 


THE  HIGHER   TH EI  STIC  DEVELOPMENT       453 

and  somewhat  indifferent  to  men,  but  not  hostile ;  in  other  cases 
there  is  a  simple  division  of  spirits  into  two  classes,  the  friendly 
and  the  unfriendly,1  and  in  the  higher  forms  of  savage  life  there 
may  be  two  such  classes  of  deities.2  The  double  feeling  of  man 
respecting  the  attitude  of  ghosts  toward  living  human  beings  is 
referred  to  above.3 

969.  In  certain  higher  forms  of  savage  and  half-civilized  life  we 
find  the  conception  of  a  definite  contrast  between  the  two  sets  of 
Powers.  The  Hottentots  are  said  to  believe  in  two  opposed  super- 
natural beings,  the  struggle  between  them  ending  to  the  advantage 
of  the  one  who  is  beneficent  toward  men.4  The  Masai  have  two 
powerful  beings,  one  accounted  good,  the  other  bad  ;  the  difference 
between  them  is  not  ethical,  but  represents  only  the  relation  of 
their  acts  to  man's  well-being.5  The  Malays  have  a  very  elaborate 
system  of  good  and  evil  spirits,  but  the  system  is  colored  by 
foreign  influences.6  For  the  Ainu  snakes  are  an  embodiment  of 
merely  physical  evil,  and  other  Powers  are  the  dispensers  of  physical 
well-being.7  The  Arab  jinn  represent  the  unwholesome  and  antag- 
onistic conditions  of  nature,  stand  opposed  to  the  gods,  and  are 
without  ethical  motives.8  Even  the  Andamanese,  one  of  the  lowest 
of  human  communities,  have  a  division  of  Powers  into  one  who  is 
friendly  and  two  who  are  unfriendly.9  In  all  these  cases  we  have 
to  recognize  simply  the  expression  of  the  perception  of  two  sets 
of  physical  agencies  in  the  world.     It  is  easy  to  exaggerate  the 

1  Compare  the  Brazilian  Tapuyas  (Botocudos) ;  see  article  "  Brazil"  in  Hastings, 
Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  For  West  Africa  cf.  A.  B.  Ellis,  Yoruba,  p.  87;  Ts/ii,  chaps,  iii-viii ;  Ewe, 
chaps,  iii-v. 

3  §•365  ff.  On  this  attitude  see  the  reports  of  the  religions  of  particular  peoples 
and  the  summaries  of  such  reports  in  dictionaries  and  encyclopedias,  and  in  such 
works  as  Steinmetz,  Ethnologischc  Studicn  znr  ersten  Entwicklung  dcr  Strafe :  Wes- 
termarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas;  also  articles  in  the  Journal 
of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  the  reports  of  the  American  Bureau  of  Ethnology, 
and  similar  publications.  4  Theoph.  Hahn,  Tsuni-Goam,  p.  $S. 

5  Hollis,  The  Masai,  p.  264  f.  6  Skeat,  Malay  Magic,  pp.  93  ff.,  320  ff. 

1  Batchelor,  The  Aimt,  pp.  195  f.,  200. 

8  Wellhausen,  Reste  arabischcn  Heidentumes,  p.  1  35  ff. :  W.  K.  Smith,  Religion 
of  the  Semites,  Index,  s.v.Jinn. 

9  R.  C.  Temple,  article  '"Andamans"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics. 


454     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

nature  of  these  contrasts    and  to  represent  certain  low  tribes  as 
possessing  general  divine  embodiments  of  good  and  evil. 

970.  Such  a  conception  has  been  attributed  to  the  American 
Redmen,1  but  on  insufficient  grounds.  The  most  careful  recent 
investigations  of  the  religious  ideas  of  the  Creeks,  the  Lenape',  the 
Pawnees,  and  the  Californian  Shasta  (four  typical  communities) 
fail  to  discover  anything  that  can  be  called  a  real  dualistic  concep- 
tion.2 Dorsey  mentions  a  Pawnee  myth  of  the  introduction  of 
death  into  the  world  by  a  member  of  the  heavenly  council  of  gods 
\fho  felt  himself  slighted ;  but  this  isolated  story  does  not  prove 
the  existence  of  a  general  dualistic  scheme  —  the  act  in  question 
has  parallels  in  savage  systems  that  recognize  various  unfriendly 
Powers.3  The  reports  we  have  of  two  definite  morally  antagonistic 
deities  in  Redmen  tribes  resolve  themselves  on  examination  into 
misconceptions  or  exaggerations  on  the  part  of  the  reporters ;  or, 
so  far  as  the  antagonism  really  exists,  it  is  due  to  Christian  influ- 
ence. The  Iroquois  dualistic  system  as  described  by  Chief  Cusic 
(in  1825)  — two  brothers,  Good  Mind  and  Bad  Mind,  the  former 
the  creator  of  all  things  good,  the  latter  the  creator  of  all  things 
bad  —  appears  in  the  version  of  Bre'beuf  (in  1636)  as  a  simple 
nature  myth,  the  two  deities  in  question  being  somewhat  more 
definite  forms  of  the  friendly  and  unfriendly  spirits  met  with  in  all 
lower  communities.4  In  like  manner  Winslow's  two  opposed 
Powers  of  the  New  England  Algonkins  turn  out  not  to  be  morally 
antagonistic  to  each  other,  in  fact,  according  to  Brinton,  not  antag- 
onistic at  all.5    These  facts  warn  us  to  treat  with  caution  the  vague 

1  For  example,  by  Waitz,  Anthropologic,  Hi,  pp.  182  f.,  330,  334  f. ;  Waitz  expresses 
doubt  (p.  345)  as  to  the  correctness  of  certain  accounts  of  the  religious  ideas  of  the 
Oregon  tribes. 

2  Gatschet,  Migration  Legend  of  the  Creeks,  p.  215  f .  ;  Brinton,  The  Lena/e, 
p.  67  f.  ;   Dorsey,  The  Skidi  Pawnee,  p.  xviii  f. ;   Dixon,  The  Shasta,  p.  491  ff. 

3  On  methods  of  accounting  for  the  existence  of  death  in  the  world  see  above, 
§S34- 

4  Brebeuf's  account  is  given  in  Relation  des  Jesuites  dans  la  nouvcllc  France, 
1635,  p.  34;  1636,  p.  100;  cf.  the  edition  of  the  Relation  by  R.  G.  Thwaites,  viii, 
116  ff.;  x,  126  f.  Brebeuf  appears  to  have  followed  Sagard,  Canada  (see  Troas  ed., 
p.  452  ff.).  The  story  is  discussed  by  Brinton,  in  Myths  of  the  New  World,  3d  ed., 
p.  79  ff.,  and  his  criticism  is  adopted  by  Tylor,  Primitive  Cidturc,  3d  ed.,  ii,  322. 

5  Brinton,  op.  cit.,  p.  77. 


THE  HIGHER   JURISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       455 

statements  of  early  travelers  respecting  dualistic  views  supposed 
to  be  held  by  tribes  in  North  America  and  South  America.1 

971.  In  West  Africa  the  Ashanti  embody  the  sources  of  physi- 
cal misfortune  in  several  deities,  who  are  malignant  but  do  not 
stand  in  opposition  to  the  friendly  gods.  A  preliminary  step  to  the 
conception  of  a  god  of  misfortunes  is  the  assignment  of  a  sort 
of  headship  to  one  of  a  mass  of  unfriendly  or  hurtful  spirits  — 
such  a  crude  organization  is  natural  in  a  community  in  which  there 
is  a  fairly  developed  form  of  social  organization,  and  the  head 
spirit  easily  grows  into  a  god.  A  simple  headship  over  hurtful 
spirits  appears  to  be  found  in  the  Ainu  system,  though  this  latter 
is  in  general  not  well  developed.2 

972.  A  definite  antagonism  of  good  and  bad  Powers  is  found 
in  the  religion  of  the  non-Aryan  Khonds  of  Orissa :  the  earth- 
goddess  Tari,  the  creature  but  the  opponent  of  the  sun-god  Bella 
Pennu,  introduced  sin  and  death  into  the  world  and  contested  (and, 
according  to  one  native  account,  still  contests)  with  her  creator  the 
control  of  life.  This  explanation  of  the  origin  of  death  is  a  higher 
form  of  stories  that  occur  abundantly  in  savage  lore,  with  the  im- 
portant difference  that  in  these  death  comes  by  accident,  but  here 
by  malicious  purpose.  It  is  not  clear  whether  or  not  the  characters 
of  Tari  and  Bella  Pennu  are  conceived  of  ethically.  The  weapons 
(comets,  winds,  mountains)  employed  by  the  two  deities  indicate 
that  the  basis  of  the  representation  is  a  nature  myth.  Advanced 
eschatological  thought  appears  in  the  opinion,  held  by  some  natives, 
that  the  good  god  was  victorious  in  the  contest.3 

973.  In  the  great  ancient  religions,  with  the  exception  of  Zoro- 
astrianism,  no  dualistic  scheme  appears.  An  Egyptian  god  may  be 
angry,  as,  for  example,  Ra,  who  in  a  fit  of  resentment  causes  men 
to  be  slain  but  soon  repents  ;  and  Set,  the  enemy  of  Osiris,  a 
nature  god,  seemed  at  one  time  to  be  on  the  way  to  become  an 
embodiment  of  evil,  but  the  Egyptian  cult  rejected  this  idea  and 

1  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  324  ff. ;  article  "  Algonquins  "  in  Hastings,  Ency- 
clopedia of  Religion  and  Ethics,  pp.  320,  323. 

2  Batchelor,  The  Ainu,  and  his  article  in  Hastings,  op.  cit. 

3  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  528  ff.  The  influence  of  Brahmanism  is  possible 
here  ;  but  cf.  Hopkins,  op.  cit.,  p.  530,  note  3. 


456     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Set  gradually  disappeared.1  •  The  Babylonian  cosmogonic  myth,  in 
which  Tiamat  is  the  enemy  of  the  gods  of  order,  has  no  cultic 
significance ;  the  great  mass  of  demonic  beings  was  not  organized 
into  a  kingdom  of  evil,  and  the  Underworld  deities,  nature  gods, 
while  subject  to  ordinary  human  passions,  are  not  hostile  to  the  gods 
of  heaven  and  earth.  The  Hebrews  adopted  the  Babylonian  cosmo- 
gonic myth,2  but  it  became  a  mere  literary  attachment  to  the  con- 
ception of  the  supreme  god  Yahweh,  and  was  otherwise  ineffective. 
974.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  certain  cosmogonic  myths  of 
the  Greeks,  such  as  the  war  of  the  Titans  against  Zeus  and  similar 
episodes.  Ate  and  the  Erinyes  are  embodiments  of  man's  own  evil 
nature  or  represent  the  punishment  that  overtakes  guilt,  but  they 
do  not  represent  a  formal  opposition  to  goodness  nor  are  they 
organized  into  a  definite  body.3  The  Roman  Furies  are  practically 
identicalin  function  with  the  Erinyes.  In  the  old  Teutonic  religion 
the  only  figure  who  approaches  essential  badness  is  Loki ;  but  he, 
though  at  times  malignant  and  treacherous  (as  a  human  chieftain 
might  be),  remains  a  recognized  member  of  the  assembly  of  gods. 
As  a  nature  god  he  may  represent  the  elements  of  darkness  and 
unhappiness  in  life,  just  as  the  various  evil  spirits  in  the  world  do, 
but  he  never  approaches  the  position  of  an  independent  creator  of 
evil.4  The  Celtic  deities  Llew  and  Dylan  are  said  to  stand  over 
against  each  other  and  to  represent  good  and  bad  tendencies  and 
elements  of  life ;  but  they  are  not  very  distinct  and  are  probably 
nothing  more  than  somewhat  developed  local  deities.5  In  the  Chinese 


1  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civilization,  pp.  172,  202  ;  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  571  ; 
Steindorff,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  67  ff. 

2  This  myth  may  have  trickled  down  to  them  (through  the  Canaanites  or  in  some 
other  way)  in  subdued  form  —  it  appears,  perhaps,  in  the  serpent  of  Gen.  iii ;  but  it 
seems  to  have  been  adopted  in  full  form  at  a  later  time,  apparently  in  or  after  the 
sixth  century  B.C. 

3  Rohde,  Psyche,  Index,  s.v.  Erinyen;  articles  "Ate,"  "  Erinys,"  in  Roscher's 
Lexikon. 

4  On  the  diverse  elements  in  Loki's  character,  and  on  his  diabolification,  see 
Saussaye,  Religion  of  the  Teutons,  p.  259  ff. ;  R.  M.  Meyer,  Altgermanische  Religions- 
geschichte,  p.  335  ff.  (Loki  as  fire-god  developed  out  of  a  fire-demon). 

5  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics,  article  "  Celts,"  p.  289.  On  the 
anthropinizing  or  the  distinctly  euhemerizing  treatment  of  these  two  personages  see 
Rhys,  Celtic  Folklore,  Index,  s.vv. 


THE  HIGHER   THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       457 

and  Japanese  cults  there  is  no  indication  of  a  conflict ;  evil  spirits 
there  are  in  abundance,  but  no  cosmic  antagonism. 

975.  In  India  the  cosmogonic  myths  are  to  be  interpreted  in 
the  same  way  as  those  mentioned  above.  Soma  and  Indra,  as 
slayers  of  the  demon  Vritya,  represent  order  as  against  disorder, 
but  Vritya  never  had  cultic  significance ;  he  appears  only  as  a 
bodily  demonstration  of  the  power  of  the  great  gods.  The  asuras 
are  not  essentially  different  from  the  harmful  spirits  of  savages, 
though  it  is  true  that  they  come  into  conflict  with  the  friendly  gods. 
Rahu,  who  causes  eclipses  by  swallowing  the  sun,  is  only  a  nature 
deity  of  great  might.  In  the  Mahabharata  there  are  powerful 
demons,  and  the  Qivaite  cult  includes  the  worship  of  dread  beings, 
but  such  worship  only  reflects  the  fear  of  the  unfriendly  elements 
of  physical  nature.1  Nor  do  we  find  in  the  persons  of  Durga,  Kali, 
and  the  Yakshas,  unpleasantly  savage  as  these  are,  a  conception  of 
evil  as  an  organized  force  directed  against  the  good  gods ;  they 
are  rather  the  embodiment  of  evil  human  dispositions.  The  under- 
ground demons  are  punishers  of  sin,  but  not  themselves  morally 
evil.  There  is,  it  is  true,  in  the  Hindu  religious  scheme  the  general 
antithesis  of  light  and  darkness,  which  are  connected  with  right 
and  wrong  —  an  antithesis  that  appears  abundantly  in  other  reli- 
gious systems;2  but  the  powers  of  darkness  are  not  organized 
against  the  powers  of  light,  and  there  is  no  complete  dualism, 
though  we  have  here,  perhaps,  the  starting-point  for  such  a 
conception. 

976.  While  thus  a  vague  sense  of  duality  has  existed  all  over 
the  world,  and  in  certain  cases,  as  it  seems,  there  were  vague 
attempts  at  organization,  it  is  only  in  Zoroastrianism  that  the  de- 
cisive step  has  been  taken.  We  have  to  recognize  in  this  system  a 
distinct  movement  towards  a  unitary  conception  of  the  world ;  but 
the  sense  of  difference  in  human  experiences  was  so  great  in  the 
mind  of  the  creators  of  the  system  that  they  were  led  to  a  unifica- 
tion in  two  divisions.3    The  origin  of  the  movement  lies  far  back 

1  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  pp.  367,  y]7,  4 14.  2  See  above,  §  S57. 

3  It  has  been  suggested  that  climatic  conditions  (sharp  contrasts  of  storm  and 
calm,  with  consequent  strain  and  peace  in  life)  led  to  this  dual  arrangement.    But  we 


458      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

at  a  time  when  there  were  no  records  of  thought  and  social  move- 
ments, and  it  is  impossible  now  to  say  definitely  what  were  the 
original  elements  of  the  cult.  We  may  surmise  that  there  was  an 
Indo-Iranian  conception  of  a  general  contrast  between  light  and 
darkness,  and  that  this  was  the  starting-point  or  the  basis  of  the 
developed  Iranian  theological  system.  The  old  Indie  and  the  old 
Iranian  religions  seem  to  have  been  independent  developments 
from  a  common  original  mass  of  material ;  but  we  do  not  know 
what  determined  the  differences  in  the  two  developments.  The 
constructions  were  the  work,  doubtless,  of  successions  of  reformers, 
but  the  details  of  these  long-continued  efforts  have  not  come  down 
to  us.1  The  essential  point  is  that  the  evil  mass  in  the  world  was 
conceived  of  as  a  unity  by  the  Iranians  and  assigned  a  head,  Angro 
Mainyu.  This  name  does  not  occur  in  the  Achaemenian  inscrip- 
tions, but  it  is  mentioned  in  the  Gathas  and  by  Aristotle,2  so  that 
it  appears  to  belong  to  an  early  stratum  of  the  Iranian  religion. 
The  present  state  of  the  world  is  regarded  as  the  result  of  a  con- 
stant series  of  antagonisms  between  the  two  creators,  Spenta  Mainyu 
(Ahura  Mazda)  and  Angro  Mainyu,  these  being  attended  each  by  a 
circle  of  helpers.  A  polytheistic  interpretation  of  the  helpers  is 
avoided  by  making  them  abstractions  (though  with  a  tendency 
toward  personification),  the  representatives  of  various  features  or 
elements  in  the  government  of  the  world  or  in  the  experiences 
of  men.3 

977.  A  strictly  dualistic  system  recognizes  only  two  Powers  in 
the  world.  The  Avestan  religion,  however,  admits  other  deities 
besides  Ahura  Mazda  and  Angro  Mainyu ;  Mitra,  Anahita,  and 
others  are  objects  of  worship.  The  ancient  national  faiths,  that  is, 
were  not  content  with  a  simple  division  of  things  between  two 
divine  beings.   An  approach  to  such  a  view  was  made  by  Judaism, 

do  not  know  that  there  were  specially  strong  contrasts  of  weather  in  the  Iranian 
home,  and  there  is  no  mention  of  such  a  situation  in  the  early  documents,  in  which 
the  complaint  is  of  inroads  of  predatory  bands  from  the  steppe. 

1  See  above,  §  742  ff.  2  According  to  Diogenes  Laertius,  Proem,  viii. 

3  To  designate  the  unfriendly  supernatural  Powers  two  terms  meaning  '  divine 
beings'  were  available,  'asuras'  and  'divas'  (daevas)  ;  the  Hindus  chose  the  for- 
mer, the  Iranians  the  latter.  Cf.  Darmesteter,  Ofmazd  ct  Ahriman,  p.  268  ff. ;  Mac- 
donell,  Vedic  Mythology,  p.  156  ff. 


THE  HIGHER    THEISTIC  DEVELOPMEXT 


459 


which,  partly  under  Persian  influence,  produced  the  figure  of  the 
Satan,  a  quasi-independent  being  hostile  to  the  Supreme  Deity.1 
Christianity,  adopting  this  conception  from  Judaism,  elaborated  it 
into  the  person  of  the  Devil,  the  veritable  head  of  a  kingdom  of 
evil,  called  in  the  New  Testament  "  the  god  of  this  age."2  Though 
doomed  to  final  defeat,  as  Ahriman  in  the  Avesta  is  doomed,  the 
Devil  in  the  orthodox  Christian  system  is  practically  omnipresent 
and  is  powerful  enough  to  defeat  the  plans  of  God  in  many  cases. 
In  modern  enlightened  Christian  feeling,  however,  he  has  become 
little  more  than  a  name.  Though  he  is  credited  in  theory  with 
suggesting  evil  and  alluring  men  to  sin,  this  dogma  has  small  force 
in  the  better  minds  against  the  strong  conviction  of  individual  free- 
dom and  responsibility.  Current  Christianity,  in  its  highest  forms, 
is  theoretically,  but  not  really,  dualistic.  The  Satan  is  taken  more 
seriously  by  Islam,  which  has  adopted  the  conception  from  Christi- 
anity and  Judaism.3  For  the  ordinary  Moslem  he  belongs  in  the 
category  of  evil  spirits  and  is  as  real  as  one  of  the  jinn  ;  he  may 
be  cursed  and  stoned  and  driven  away,4  but  he  does  not  affect 
the  Moslem  belief  in  the  oneness  of  God. 

978.  From  the  conquest  of  Persia  by  Alexander  to  the  fall  of 
the  Parthian  dynasty  (a  period  of  over  five  hundred  years)  little  is 
known  of  the  history  of  Mazdaism  beyond  the  fact  that  it  seems  to 
have  been  adopted  by  the  Parthians  in  a  debased  form  ;  but  about 
the  time  of  the  Persian  revival  under  the  Sassanians  (226  a.d.)  it 
passed  the  bounds  of  its  native  land  and  made  its  way  into  the 
Roman  Fmpire  in  the  shape  of  Manichaeism,  a  mixture  of  dualistic 
and  Christian  Gnostic  conceptions.    That  Manichaeism  had  a  certain 


1  Zech.  iii ;  Job  i,  ii ;  i  Chron.  xxi,  i,  contrasted  with  2  Sam.  xxiv,  1  ;  Enoch  xl,  ;  ; 
liii,  3,  etc. ;  Secrets  of  Enoch  (Slavonic  Enoch),  xxix,  4,  5  ;  xxxi,  3,  4.  The  word  Satan 
means  '  adversary,'  and,  as  legal  adversary,  '  accuser.'  The  germ  of  the  conception 
is  to  be  sought  in  the  apparatus  of  spirits  controlled  by  Vahweh,  and  sometimes  em- 
ployed by  him  as  agents  to  harm  men  (1  Kings  xxii,  19-23).  The  idea  of  an  accusing 
spirit  seems  to  have  arisen  from  the  necessity  of  explaining  the  misfortunes  of  the 
nation  (Zech.  iii)  ;  it  was  expanded  under  native  and  foreign  influences. 

2  2  Cor.  iv,  4.  3  A'o/a/i,  vii,  10  ff. 

4  So  in  the  ceremonies  of  the  pilgrimage  to  Mecca  and  in  common  life.  The 
"  satans  "  have  in  part  coalesced  with  the  jinn;  see  Lane's  Arabian  Nights,  "  Notes 
to  the  Introduction,"  note  21. 


460     INTRO DUCTI OX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

force  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  it  attracted  such  a  man  as  Augustine, 
and  its  survival  for  several  centuries  in  spite  of  persecutions  attests 
its  vitality.  It  may  be  doubted  whether  its  attractiveness  lay  so 
much  in  its  dualism  as  in  its  gnosticism,  though  the  former  element 
maintained  itself  in  some  minor  Christian  sects.  However  this  may 
be,  it  gradually  faded  away,  leaving  no  lasting  impression ;  it  was 
a  form  of  faith  not  suited  to  the  peoples  who  professed  Christianity.1 

979.  The  modern  philosophic  proposals  to  recognize  two  deities 
instead  of  one  are  as  yet  too  vague  to  call  for  discussion.   Dualism, 

'though  it  accounts  in  some  fashion  for  the  twofold  character  of 
human  experiences,  raises  as  many  problems  as  it  solves ;  in  par- 
ticular it  finds  itself  confronted  apparently  by  a  physical  and  psy- 
chological unity  in  the  world  which  it  is  hard  to  explain  on  the 
hypothesis  of  conflicting  supernatural  Powers.2  On  the  moral  side 
the  record  of  dualistic  schemes  is  in  general  good.  The  ethical 
standard  of  Mazdaism  is  high,  and  the  ethical  practice  of  Mazdean 
communities  hardly  differs  from  that  of  other  prominent  modern 
religious  bodies.  Though  the  Manichaeans  were  accused  of  immoral 
practices,  it  does  not  appear  that  Mani  himself  or  any  prominent 
disciple  of  his  announced  or  favored  or  permitted  such  practices. 

Monotheism 

980.  The  preceding  survey  has  shown  that  the  theory  of  dualism 
has  not  proved  in  general  acceptable  to  men.  It  was  adopted  by 
one  people  only,  and  even  by  them  not  in  complete  form,  and  its 
character  as  a  national  cult  was  destroyed  by  the  Moslem  conquest 
of  Persia  in  the  seventh  century.  The  Zoroastrian  system  was 
indeed  carried  by  a  body  of  emigrants  to  India  and  has  since 
been  professed  by  the  Parsis  there  ;  but  it  has  been  converted  by 
them  into  a  practical  monotheistic  cult,  so  that  a  consistent  dual- 
ism now  exists  nowhere  in  the  world.  The  thought  of  the  great 
civilized  nations  has  turned  rather  to  a  unitary  view  of  the  divine 
government  of  the  world. 

1  Herzog-Hauck,  Real- Encyklopd  die ,  s.v.  "  Mani  u.  Manichaismus." 

2  On  a  lack  of  unity  in  the  world  see  W.  James,  A  Pluralistic  Universe. 


THE  HIGHER  THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       46 1 

981.  The  history  of  the  movement  which  has  elevated  mono- 
theism to  the  highest  place  among  the  civilized  cults  extends  over 
the  whole  period  of  man's  life  on  the  earth.  It  is  pointed  out  above1 
that  very  generally  in  low  tribes  a  local  supernatural  personage  is 
invested  with  great  power:  he  is  creator,  ruler,  and  guardian  of 
morals;  where  a  tolerably  definite  civil  and  political  organization 
exists  he  has  virtually  the  position  and  performs  the  functions  of 
the  tribal  chief,  only  with  vastly  greater  powers  and  privileges; 
where  there  is  no  such  organization  he  is  simply  a  vaguely  con- 
ceived, mysterious  man  who  has  control  of  the  elements  and  of 
human  fortunes,  and  punishes  violations  of  tribal  custom.  Such  a 
personage  is,  however,  at  best  only  the  highest  among  many  super- 
natural Powers.  It  is  immaterial  whether  we  regard  such  a  figure 
as  developed  from  a  spirit  or  as  the  direct  product  of  religious 
imagination.  He  is  always  crudely  anthropomorphic  and,  notwith- 
standing his  primacy,  is  limited  in  power  by  his  own  nature,  by 
other  supernatural  Powers,  and  by  men.  Frequently,  also,  he  tends 
to  become  otiose  and  virtually  loses  his  supremacy  ; 2  that  is  to  say, 
in  the  increased  complexity  of  social  life  a  god  who  was  once  suf- 
ficient for  the  needs  of  a  simpler  organization  has  to  give  way  to 
a  number  of  Powers  which  are  regarded  as  the  controllers  of  special 
departments  of  life.  Such  an  otiose  form  may  sometimes  indicate 
a  succession  of  divine  quasi-dynasties,  somewhat  as  in  the  Greek 
sequence  of  Ouranos,  Kronos,  Zeus.  Handed  down  from  a  former 
generation,  he  becomes  dim  and  is  neglected.  That  he  is  not  wor- 
shiped is  a  result  of  the  fact  that  other  divine  beings,  standing 
nearer  to  existing  human  interests,  have  come  to  the  front. 

982.  The  theory  has  been  held  in  the  past,  and  is  still  held,  that 
monotheism  was  the  primitive  form  of  religion  and  that  the  wor- 
ship of  many  spirits  or  many  gods  is  a  corruption  of  primitive 
thought  due  to  man's  intellectual  feebleness'  or  to  his  moral  de- 
pravity. It  is  urged  that  such  a  monotheistic  system  was  the 
natural  one  for  unsophisticated  man.  The  view  has  been  widely 
held  also  that  it  was  the  result  of  a  primitive  divine  revelation  to 

1  §  643. 

2  So  the  Zulu  Unkulunkulu,  the  Fiji  Ndengci,  the  Virginia  Ahone,  and  others. 


462     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

men.  It  is  obvious  that  neither  of  these  opinions  is  susceptible  of 
proof  on  a  priori  grounds ;  the  question  can  be  settled  only  by  a 
survey  of  the  phenomena  known  to  us.  When  the  facts  are  clearly 
stated,  it  is  then  allowable  to  deduce  from  them  such  conclusions 
as  may  seem  legitimate. 

983.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  does  not  appear  that  real  mono- 
theistic belief  exists  or  has  existed  among  savage  and  half-civilized 
communities  of  whose  history  we  have  any  knowledge.  Where  a 
certain  supernatural  being  is  described  by  observers  as  "  the  god  " 
*or  "  the  supreme  god  "  of  a  tribe,  it  turns  out  on  inquiry  that  he 
is  at  most,  as  is  remarked  above,  a  very  prominent  divine  figure, 
perhaps  the  most  prominent,  but  never  standing  alone  and  never 
invested  with  those  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  capacities  that 
are  necessary  for  a  complete  monotheistic  faith. 

984.  While,  however,  this  conclusion  is  generally  admitted  for 
the  majority  of  cases,1  it  has  been  held,  and  is  still  held,  that  there 
are  found  in  savage  cults  certain  "  self-existent,  eternal,  moral " 
beings  who  satisfy  all  the  conditions  of  a  monotheistic  faith.  Among 
the  examples  cited  are  the  American  gods  described  by  Strachey 
and  Winslow  as  supreme  in  power  and  ethically  good.'2  But,  even 
in  the  curt  and  vague  accounts  of  these  early  observers  (who  were 
not  in  position  to  get  accurate  notions  of  Indian  beliefs),  it  appears 
that  there  were  many  gods,  the  supposed  supreme  deity  being 
simply  the  most  prominent  in  the  regions  known  to  the  first  settlers. 
The  "  Great  Spirit"  of  the  Jesuit  missionaries  is  found,  in  like 
manner,  to  be  one  of  many  supernatural  patrons,  locally  important 
but  not  absolute  in  power.3  The  Zulu  Unkulunkulu  is  revered  by 
the  natives  as  a  very  great  being,  morally  good  according  to  the 
standards  of  the  people,  but  he  is  of  uncertain  origin  and  is  value- 
less in  the  existing  cult.4  The  much-discussed  Australian  figures, 
Baiame,  Bunjil,  and  Daramulun,  appear  not  to  differ  essentially 

1  Compare  Lang's  sketch  of  the  gods  of  the  lower  races  in  Myth,  Ritual,  and 
Religion,  chap,  xii  f.,  and  Making  of  Religion,  preface  and  chaps,  xii-xiv. 

2  Strachey,  Historic  of  Travaile  into  Virginia  Britannica  (16 12),  p.  98  f.  and 
chap,  vii  :  Winslow,  Relation  (1624),  printed  in  Young's  Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrim 
Fathers,  see  chap,  xxiii.  3  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  324,  339. 

4  Callaway,  The  Amazulu,  p.  1  ff. 


THE  HIGHER  THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       463 

from  those  just  mentioned.  The  reports  of  the  natives  who  have 
been  questioned  on  the  subject  are  often  vague  and  sometimes 
mutually  contradictory,  and  exact  biographical  details  of  these 
divine  personages  are  lacking;  but  careful  recent  observers  are 
of  opinion  that  they  are  nothing  more  than  supernatural  headmen, 
having  such  power  as  tribal  chiefs  or  headmen  possess,  and  credited 
in  different  regions  with  different  moral  qualities.1 

985.  In  the  systems  of  many  other  low  tribes  there  are  quasi- 
divine  beings  who  are  credited  with  great  power  and  are  revered 
without  being  thought  of  as  eternal  or  as  standing  alone  in  the 
government  of  the  world.  A  specially  interesting  example  is  the 
Andaman  Puluga,  a  sort  of  creator  who  receives  no  worsnip ;  his 
abode  is  a  mountain  or  the  sky,  and  he  seems  to  have  been  origi- 
nally a  local  supernatural  figure  who  is  traditionally  respected  but 
is  no  longer  thought  of  as  an  efficient  patron.2  The  mysterious 
Ndengei  of  Fiji  is  judge  of  the  dead,  but  one  of  many  gods  and 
not  all-powerful.3  In  many  tribes  there  is  no  one  great  divine 
figure ;  the  control  of  things  is  divided  among  hosts  of  spirits  and 
gods.  This  is  the  case  with  the  Ainu,  the  Maoris,  the  Greenlanders, 
the  Kwakiutl  of  Northwest  America,4  and  is  probably  the  rule  in 
most  of  the  lower  communities. 

The  terms  '  self-existent '  and  '  eternal '  are  not  found  in  savage 
vocabularies  and  seem  to  have  no  representatives  in  savage  thought. 
Savage  cosmology  carries  the  history  of  the  world  back  to  a  certain 
point  and  stops  when  there  is  no  familiar  hypothesis  of  genesis.5 
As  a  rule  spirits  (as  distinguished  from  ghosts)  are  not  thought  of 
as  having  a  creator ;  they  are  a  part  of  the  system  of  things  and 
are  not  supposed  to  need  explanation,  and  so  it  seems  to  be  with 
simple  clan  gods.    Nor  is  there  any  reason,  in  savage  theory,  why 

1  Howitt,  Native  Tribes  of  South-East  Australia,  Index  (cf.  Spencer  and  Gillen, 
Northern  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  p.  492);  cf.  Thomas,  Natives  of  Australia, 
chap,  xiii,  and  article  "Australia"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopcedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  Temple,  article  "Andamans"  in  Hastings.  Encyclopcedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

3  Williams  and  Calvert,  Fiji,  chap.  vii. 

4  Batchelor,  The  Ainu,  chap,  xvii  ;  Taylor,  New  Zealand,  chaps,  v-vii ;  Kink, 
Danish  Greenland,  p.  204  ft".  ;   Boas,  'The  Kwakiutl,  chap.  vi. 

5  The  confusion  incident  to  savage  theogonic  reflection  is  illustrated  by  Zulu 
attempts  to  explain  Unkulunkulu  (Callaway,  loc.  cit.). 


464     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

gods  or  spirits  should  die ;  death  is  an  accident  for  human  beings, 
not  an  essential  feature  of  their  constitution  ;  but  such  an  accident 
is  not  usually  supposed  to  occur  in  the  case  of  gods.  What  takes 
the  place  of  the  conception  of  '  eternal '  in  savage  thought  is  an 
existence  that  is  supposed  to  continue  for  the  reason  that  its  cessa- 
tion does  not  come  into  consideration.  As  to  creation,  there  is  no 
need,  in  a  low  community,  to  suppose  more  than  one  originator  of 
the  world,  and  cosmogonic  theory  may  stop  at  that  point,  though 
this  is  not  an  invariable  rule.  The  title  "  father  "  for  persons  of 
distinction,  human  or  divine,  is  found  among  many  undeveloped 
peoples,  and  a  headman  or  patron  may  be  called,  by  a  natural 
extension  of  thought,  "  all-father,"  a  title  that  is  not  essentially 
different  in  signification  from  the  simple  "  father,"  and  does  not 
carry  with  it  the  refined  sense  of  later  times.  The  question  of 
savage  monotheism  need  present  no  difficulty  if  the  conditions  are 
clearly  defined.1  It  is  true  that  there  is  in  some  cases  a  monar- 
chical conception  of  the  divine  control  of  a  clan  or  a  tribe,  and  that 
this  simple  system  is  followed  by  a  more  or  less  elaborate  theology. 
In  both  civil  and  religious  systems  the  increasing  complexity  of 
social  life  has  called  forth  correspondingly  complex  organizations, 
but  this  movement  away  from  simplicity  does  not  denote  falling  off 
in  civil  and  religious  purity  and  wisdom.  A  true  monotheism  has 
never  arisen  except  as  a  criticism  of  polytheism. 

986.  It  is  obvious  that  the  popular  cults  of  the  great  nations  of 
antiquity  were  far  removed  from  monotheism.  The  Egyptians,  the 
Babylonians  and  the  Assyrians,  the  Phoenicians,  the  Hebrews,  the 
Arabs,  the  Hindus,  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans,  down  to  a  late 
period,  worshiped  a  multitude  of  gods  and  were  not  disturbed  by 
any  feeling  of  lack  of  unity  in  the  divine  government  of  the  world. 
The  proof  that  such  was  the  case  among  the  ancient  Hebrews  down 
to  the  sixth  century  B.C.  is  found  in  the  Old  Testament  writings : 
the  historical  books  from  the  entrance  of  the  Hebrew  tribes  into 
Canaan  down  to  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Chaldeans 

1  Lang,  in  the  works  cited  in  the  preceding  paragraph,  is  right  in  his  contention 
that  the  clan  god  is  not  always  derived  from  a  spirit ;  but  the  coloring  he  gives  to 
the  character  of  this  sort  of  god  is  not  in  accordance  with  known  facts. 


THE  HIGHER  THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       465 

and  the  prophetical  writings  of  the  eighth,  seventh,  and  sixth  cen- 
turies represent  the  people  generally  as  addicted  to  the  worship  of 
a  great  number  of  gods.  In  Persia  also,  since  the  Mazdean  system 
recognized  a  considerable  number  of  deities,  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  the  people  were  polytheistic,  not  to  speak  of  the  probability 
that  there  were  survivals  of  a  lower  form  of  religion  which  preceded 
Mazdaism.  In  the  modern  nations  of  the  east  of  Asia,  China  and 
Japan,  the  popular  worship  is  anything  but  monotheistic  :  in  China 
the  local  spirits  play  a  very  great  part  in  the  life  of  the  people,  and 
in  Japan  the  old  gods  are  still  objects  of  worship.  It  may  be  added 
that  among  the  masses  in  some  nominally  Christian  countries, 
particularly  among  the  peasants  of  Southern  Europe,  the  old  poly- 
theism continues  in  the  form  of  the  worship  of  saints  and  the 
Madonna. 

987.  While  the  popular  cults  in  the  civilized  world  have  held 
somewhat  pertinaciously  to  pluralistic  views,  there  has  been  a 
general  tendency  in  advanced  circles  everywhere  toward  a  unitary 
conception  of  the  government  of  the  world.  As  this  tendency  has 
been  general  it  must  be  referred  to  the  general  progress  of  thought, 
the  demand  of  the  human  mind  for  unity  or  simplicity.  The  par- 
ticular lines  of  the  movement  have  varied  among  different  peoples 
according  to  the  peculiarities  of  their  culture,  and  the  unitary  feeling 
has  varied  in  its  degree  of  definiteness.  In  some  cases  the  political 
predominance  of  a  city  or  region  has  secured  preeminence  for  its 
deity,  or  national  attachment  to  the  national  god  has  elevated  him 
above  all  other  gods  ;  where  a  people  has  cultivated  poetry  or 
philosophy,  the  idealizing  thought  of  the  one  or  the  scientific 
analysis  of  the  other  has  led  in  the  same  direction. 

988.  First,  then,  we  may  note  the  disposition  to  give  substantial 
absoluteness  to  some  one  god,  the  choice  of  the  deity  being  deter- 
mined by  the  political  condition  as  is  suggested  above,  or  by  local 
attachments,  or  possibly  by  other  conditions  which  do  not  appear 
in  the  meager  records  of  early  times.  Examples  of  this  form  of 
thought  are  found  in  several  of  the  great  nations  of  antiquity.  The 
hymns  to  the  Egyptian  gods  Ra,  Amon,  Amon-Ra,  Osiris,  and  the 
Nile  describe  these  deities  as  universal  in  attributes  and  in  power. 


466     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

At  the  moment  the  poet  conceives  of  the  god  whom  he  celebrates 
as  practically  the  only  one  —  if  Ra  does  everything,  there  is  no 
need  of  any  other  deity.  At  another  moment,  however,  the  same 
poet  may  celebrate  Osiris  with  equal  enthusiasm  —  these  high  gods 
are  interchangeable.  The  suggestion  from  such  fluid  conceptions 
of  the  divine  persons  is  that  the  real  thought  in  the  mind  of  the 
poet  was  the  supremacy  of  some  divine  power  which  is  incorpo- 
rated now  in  one  familiar  divine  name,  now  in  another.  It  does 
not,  however,  quite  reach  the  point  of  well-defined  monotheism, 
for  these  gods  remain  distinct,  sometimes  with  separate  functions 
and  duties. 

989.  But  this  mode  of  conceiving  of  the  supernatural  Power 
would  naturally  pave  the  way  for  monotheism,  and  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  very  early  in  Egypt  a  definite  monotheistic  view  was 
developed.  King  Amenophis  IV,  or  to  give  him  the  name  that  he 
adopted  in  conformity  with  his  later  cult,  Khuen-Aten,  made  a 
deliberate  attempt  to  elevate  the  sun-god  Aten  to  the  position  of 
sole  ruler  and  object  of  worship.  Though  the  nature  of  his  belief 
in  this  deity  is  not  stated  in  the  documents  with  the  fullness  and 
precision  that  we  should  desire,  it  seems  clear,  from  the  fact  that 
he  ordered  the  destruction  of  the  shrines  of  the  other  deities  in  the 
land,  that  he  regarded  the  worship  of  this  one  god  as  sufficient. 
The  movement  was  not  a  successful  one  in  so  far  as  the  national 
religion  was  concerned  —  it  lasted  only  during  his  lifetime  and  that 
of  his  son,  and  then  a  counter-revolution  swept  Aten  away  and 
reinstated  the  Theban  Amon  in  all  his  former  dignity  and  powers 
—  but  its  very  existence  is  a  testimony  to  the  direction  of  thought 
of  educated  minds  in  Egypt  about  the  year  1400  B.C.  The  Aten 
revolution  appears  to  have  been  distinctively  Egyptian  —  there  is 
no  trace  of  foreign  influence  in  its  construction.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  Amenophis  got  his  idea  from  Semites  of  Western  Asia 
or  particularly  from  the  Hebrews.  But  neither  the  Hebrews  nor 
any  other  Semitic  people  of  that  period  were  monotheistic,  nor  do 
we  find  in  Egyptian  history  at  the  time  such  social  intercourse  as 
might  produce  a  violent  upturning  of  the  religious  usage.  We  can 
only  suppose  that  Amenophis  was  a  religious  genius  who  put  into 


THE  HIGHER   THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       467 

definite  shape  a  conception  that  was  in  the  air,  and  by  the  force  of 
his  enthusiasm  made  it  for  the  moment  effective.  Such  geniuses 
have  arisen  from  time  to  time  in  the  world,  and  though  the  revolu- 
tion of  this  Egyptian  king  may  seem  to  us  to  have  sprung  up  with 
abnormal  abruptness,  it  is  more  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  way 
had  been  prepared  for  it  in  Egyptian  thought.  He  was  a  man 
born  out  of  due  time ;  but  it  cannot  be  said  that  his  attempt  was 
without  influence  on  succeeding  generations. 

990.  Passing  now  to  the  oldest  Semitic  civilizations,  we  find  in 
Babylonia  and  Assyria  many  local  deities,  one  or  another  of  wh<  >m 
comes  to  the  front  under  the  hegemony  of  some  city  or  state.  Here 
we  are  met  by  the  fact  already  referred  to  that  the  gods  are  inter- 
changeable —  it  is  practically  a  matter  of  indifference  whether  one 
deity  or  another  is  elevated  to  headship.  In  the  great  empires  the 
gods  of  the  capital  cities  naturally  became  preeminent ;  so  Marduk 
in  Babylonia  and  Ashur  in  Assyria.  The  royal  inscriptions  speak 
of  these  gods  as  if  they  were  all-powerful  and  all-controlling.  In 
both  countries  the  goddess  Ishtar  appears  as  the  supreme  director 
of  affairs,  and  other  deities  are  similarly  honored.  What  might 
have  been  the  issue  if  the  later  Babylonian  kingdom  had  continued 
for  a  long  time  it  is  impossible  to  say,  but  the  impression  made  by 
the  words  of  the  devout  king  Nebuchadrezzar  II  (605-562  B.C.)  is 
that  he  would  have  been  content  with  Marduk  as  the  one  object 
of  worship.  Babylonia  produced  no  such  radical  reformer  as  the 
Egyptian  Amenophis  —  there  is  no  formulation  of  monotheism  ; 
but  the  general  tone  of  the  Babylonian  religion  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury is  not  very  different  from  that  of  the  Hebrew  religion  of  the 
same  time. 

991.  The  religious  point  of  view  of  the  Vedas  belongs  in  the 
same  category  with  the  early  Egyptian.  Varuna,  Agni,  and  Indra 
appear  in  the  hymns,  each  in  his  turn,  as  supreme.  The  role  of 
Varuna  seems  to  be  practically  identical  with  that  of  the  Iranian 
Ahura,  but  unlike  the  latter  he  does  not  succeed  in  expelling  his 
brother  divinities.  This  difference  of  development  between  the 
Hindu  and  the  Iranian  people  we  cannot  hope  to  explain.  India 
moved  not  toward  monotheism,  but  toward  pantheism.     But  the 


468      IXTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Vedic  hymns  prove  the  existence  of  a  certain  sense  of  oneness  in 
the  world,  held  by  the  poets,  though  not  by  the  mass  of  the  people, 
and  destined  to  issue  in  a  very  remarkable  religious  system. 

992.  It  has  been  by  a  very  different  line  that  China  has  reached 
its  unitary  conception  of  the  world.  The  details  of  the  movement 
are  obscure,  but  its  general  course  is  clear.1  As  with  many  other 
peoples  it  is  the  objects  of  nature  to  which  Chinese  worship  is 
mainly  paid,  but  the  Chinese  mind,  impressed  by  the  power  of 
these  objects,  is  content  to  rest  in  them  in  their  visible  form ;  no 
proper  names  are  attached  to  them,  and  they  have  a  more  or  less 
vague  personality  which  varies  in  definiteness  at  different  times 
and  with  different  persons.  The  theistic  system  is  a  reflection  of  the 
social  system.  The  eminently  practical  Chinese  mind  lays  the  chief 
stress  on  the  earthly  life :  in  the  common  everyday  life  the  family 
is  the  unit ;  but  the  general  course  of  affairs  is  controlled  by  the 
great  natural  Powers  of  earth  and  sky,  whence  arise  the  two  great 
divisions  of  Chinese  worship.  The  State  is  a  larger  family  in 
which  the  duke  or  emperor  or  other  chief  political  officer  occupies 
the  same  position  that  is  occupied  by  the  father  in  the  smaller 
social  circle ;  the  government  is  patriarchal,  with  gradations  which 
correspond  to  those  of  the  family.  Life,  it  is  held,  is  controlled  by 
the  heavenly  bodies,,  by  the  mountains  and  rivers  of  the  earth,  and 
by  deceased  members  of  families.  To  these  the  people  sacrifice, 
the  principal  part  being  taken  by  the  civil  heads  of  the  larger  and 
smaller  constituent  parts  of  the  empire  ;  there  is  thus  no  place  for 
priests.  As  the  emperor  (or  other  head  of  the  State)  is  supreme 
on  earth,  so  Heaven  and  Earth,  Sun  and  Moon  occupy  the  highest 
positions  in  the  divine  hierarchy,  and  ancestors  are  influential  and 
entitled  to  worship  according  to  the  rank  of  the  families  they 
represent.2  From  an  early  time,  long  before  Confucius,  the  head- 
ship of  the  divine  Powers,  it  would  seem,  was  assigned  to  Heaven 
—  not  the  physical  sky,  but,  at  least  in  the  thinking  circles  of  the 


1  See  above,  §  746  ff. 

2  It  is  not  probable  that  the  recent  abolition  of  the  office  of  emperor  (supposing 
the  present  revolutionary  movement  to  maintain  itself)  will  affect  the  essence  of  the 
existing  cult. 


THE  HIGHER   THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       469 

nation,  the  Power  therein  residing.  Thus  arose  the  conception 
of  an  imperial  divine  government  in  which  Heaven,  though  it  does 
not  stand  alone,  is  recognized  as  supreme.  The  larger  theistic 
conception  is  embodied  in  the  annual  sacrifices  conducted  by  the 
emperor,1  especially  at  the  winter  and  summer  solstices  when  sacri- 
fices are  offered  to  Heaven  and  Earth,  Sun  and  Moon,  the  Four 
Quarters  and  the  mountains  and  rivers  of  the  empire  and  to  his 
ancestors,  whose  worship  includes  the  interests  of  the  whole  State. 
Thus  with  a  vast  number  of  objects  of  worship  (spirits  of  all  de- 
partments of  life,  and  a  few  gods  proper)  the  Chinese  religion  has 
attained  and  maintained  a  general  unitary  conception  of  the 
divine  government  of  the  world.2 

993.  Some  resemblance  to  ttfe  Chinese  system  appears  in  the 
religion  of  Peru,  so  far  as  this  can  be  understood  from  the  accounts 
that  have  come  down  to  us.3  The  supreme  position  given  to  the 
Sun  in  Peru  and  to  the  Inca  as  child  of  the  Sun  is  parallel  to  the 
supremacy  of  Heaven  in  China  and  the  headship  of  the  emperor 
as  the  son  of  Heaven.  The  Peruvian  cult  appears  not  to  have 
reached  the  distinctness  of  the  Chinese.  There  were,  in  fact,  in 
Peru  a  considerable  number  of  tolerably  well-formed  divinities 
along  with  a  vast-  crowd  of  spirits.  Yet  it  appears  that  the  sun 
was  regarded,  at  least  by  the  Inca  and  his  circle,  as  supreme  ruler 
of  the  world.  The  Sun,  as  god,  has  no  proper  name  in  Peru,  as 
in  China  Heaven,  as  god,  has  no  proper  name.  In  both  countries, 
it  would  seem,  the  imagination  of  the  people  was  overpowered  by 
the  spectacle  of  the  majesty  of  a  great  natural  object.  The  two 
religions  differ  in  their  ritual  development :  while  the  Inca,  like 
the  Chinese  emperor,  was  the  religious  head  of  the  nation,  the 
Peruvians  created  an  elaborate  system  of  worship,  with  temples 
and  ministrants,  which  is  wanting  in  China.4  The  remarkable 
character  of  the  Peruvian  system  makes  it  all  the  more  regrettable 

1  In  place  of  the  emperor  some  high  official  personage  will  doubtless  be  de- 
puted to  conduct  the  national  sacrifices. 

2  De  Groot,  Religious  System  of  China,  Religion  of  the  Chinese,  and  Development 
of  Religion  in  China. 

3  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Pent;  Spence,  Mythologies  of  Ancient  Mexico  and  Peru. 

4  An  approach  to  such  a  system  appears  in  the  later  cult  of  Confucius. 


470     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

that  the  data  available  do  not  enable  us  to  trace  its  growth  from 
the  simplest  beginnings. 

994.  Still  another  line  of  theistic  development  is  furnished  by 
the  Hebrew  system.  The  Hebrews  are  remarkable  among  ancient 
peoples  as  having  had,  so  far  as  our  information  goes,  only  one 
national  god.  This  god  they  brought  with  them  into  Canaan  from 
the  wilderness  over  which  they  appear  to  have  roamed  with  their 
flocks  for  a  period  and  under  conditions  not  definitely  known  to 
us.  Arrived  in  Canaan,  the  masses  were  attracted  by  the  local 
Canaanite  deities  (whose  worship  represented  a  higher  civilization 
than  that  of  the  nomadic  Hebrews),  and  later,  in  the  seventh  cen- 
tury B.C.,  a  great  part  of  the  people  of  the  little  kingdom  of  Judah 
adopted  the  Assyrian  astral  cul^  but  a  group  of  Israelites  had 
always  remained  faithful  to  the  national  deity  Yahweh  (Jehovah) 
and  vigorously  opposed  all  foreign  worship.  It  was  naturally  the 
more  thoughtful  and  ethically  better-developed  part  of  the  com- 
munity that  took  this  uncompromising  position,  and  their  spokes- 
men, the  writing  prophets  whose  discourses  are  preserved  in  the 
Old  Testament,  became  preachers  of  morality  as  well  as  champions 
of  the  sole  worship  of  Yahweh.  It  does  not  appear  that  they  de- 
nied the  existence  of  other  gods,  but  they  regarded  their  own  god  as 
superior  to  all  others  in  power,  standing  in  a  peculiarly  close  rela- 
tion to  his  people  and  bound  to  them  by  peculiarly  intimate  ties. 

995.  This  attachment  to  one  deity  proved  to  be  the  dominant 
sentiment  of  the  nation.  As  time  went  on  and  the  people  were 
sifted  by  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  deportations,  the  higher 
moral  feeling  of  the  best  men  attached  itself  more  and  more  defi- 
nitely to  the  national  god.  Thus  was  established  a  monolatry 
which  was  practically  monotheism,  though  a  theory  of  absolute 
monotheism  was  never  formulated  by  the  pre-Christian  Jews.  It 
must  be  added,  as  is  remarked  above,  that,  from  the  third  or 
second  century  B.C.  on,  the  somewhat  undefined  range  of  activity 
attributed  to  Satan  produced  a  sort  of  dualism,  yet  without  im- 
pairing the  practically  unitary  conception  of  the  divine  govern- 
ment of  the  world.1    The  course  of  their  national  fortunes  and  the 

1  See  §  977. 


THE  HIGHER   THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       471 

remarkable  power  of  self-contained  pcrsistenee  of  the  Jews  brought 
about  a  segregation  of  the  people  and,  finally,  their  organization 
into  a  community  governed  by  a  law  held  to  be  divinely  revealed. 
This  capacity  of  social  religious  organization  was  the  distinctive 
characteristic  of  the  Jewish  people  and,  supported  by  their  unitary 
theistic  system  and  a  high  moral  code,  gave  the  example  of  popular 
monotheism  which,  through  the  medium  of  Christianity,  finally 
imposed  itself  upon  the  Roman  world. 

996.  In  the  ancient  world  the  most  thorough  investigation  of  the 
theistic  problem  was  made  by  the  Greeks,  whose  leading  thinkers, 
like  the  Hebrews,  moved  steadily  toward  a  unitary  conception  of 
the  divine  power,  but,  unlike  the  Hebrews,  did  not  succeed  in 
impressing  their  views  on  the  people  at  large.  What  the  theistic 
conception  in  the  pre-Homeric  times  was  we  are  unable  to  say 
definitely,  but  presumably  in  every  separate  community  there  was 
a  local  deity  who  had  practically  the  direction  of  affairs.  In  process 
of  time,  through  conditions  not  known  to  us,  Zeus  came  to  be  rec- 
ognized throughout  the  Hellenic  world  as  the  principal  deity.  In 
the  Homeric  poems  and  in  Hesiod  we  find  a  political  or  governmen- 
tal organization  of  the  gods  which  followed  the  lines  of  the  social 
organization  of  the  times.  As  Agamemnon  is  the  head  chief  over  a 
group  of  local  chiefs,  so  Zeus,  though  not  absolutely  supreme,  is  a 
divine  king,  the  head  over  a  considerable  number  of  deities  who 
have  their  own  preferences  and  plans,  and  in  ordinary  matters  go 
their  own  way  and  are  not  interfered  with  so  long  as  they  mind 
their  own  business ;  but  at  critical  points  Zeus,  like  Agamemnon, 
intervenes,  and  then  no  god  disputes  his  decisions. 

997.  This  conception  of  the  divine  government  appears,  there- 
fore, to  rest  on  the  Greek  demand  for  political  organization ;  the 
world  was  thought  of  as  divided  into  various  departments  which 
had  to  be  brought  into  a  unity  by  the  ascription  of  a  quasi-supreme 
authority  to  some  one  personage.  Necessarily,  however,  larger  in- 
tellectual and  ethical  ideas  were  incorporated  in  this  political  view. 
Though  the  popular  anthropomorphic  conceptions  of  the  deities 
appear  throughout  the  Homeric  poems  (the  gods  being  sometimes 
morally  low  as  well  as  limited  in  knowledge  and  power),  yet  on  the 


472     IXTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

other  hand  they  are  said  to  know  everything.  To  Zeus  in  particular 
lofty  qualities  are  ascribed ;  he  is  the  father  of  men  and  their  savior 
and  the  patron  of  justice.  How  it  came  about  that  these  two  sorts 
of  conceptions  of  a  supreme  deity  are  mingled  in  the  poems  is  a 
question  that  need  not  be  discussed  here;  a  similar  mingling  of 
contradictory  ideas  is  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  in  which  the 
unmoral  god  of  the  people  stands  alongside  of  the  highly  developed 
ethical  Yahweh  of  the  great  prophets. 

998.  In  Homer  and  Hesiod,  however,  the  conception  of  head- 
ship is  complicated  by  the  introduction  of  the  idea  of  fate.  In  the 
Iliad  Zeus  is  sometimes  ignorant  of  the  future  and  has  to  employ 
the  scales  of  destiny,  and  in  Hesiod  appear  the  three  Fates  who 
control  the  lives  of  men  independently  of  the  gods.  The  conception 
of  a  controlling  fate  may  be  regarded  as  an  effort  to  reach  an  abso- 
lutely unitary  view  of  the  world.  Above  all  the  divine  powers  that 
regulate  affairs,  after  the  manner  of  the  government  by  a  king  with 
his  attendant  chieftains  and  officers,  there  is  a  sense  of  a  dim  and 
undefined  power  of  unknown  origin,  mysterious,  absolute,  universal. 
The  question  whether  this  conception  was  a  reflection  of  a  sense  of 
the  controlling  power  resident  in  the  universe  itself,  or  merely  ah 
endeavor  to  rise  above  the  variations  of  anthropomorphic  deities, 
is  important  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  genesis  of  ideas,  but 
its  decision  will  not  affect  the  fact  just  stated.1  Obviously  in  the 
Homeric  world  there  appears  this  general  conviction  that  men  and 
gods  are  bound  together  in  unity  and  that  some  force  or  power 
controls  all  things.2 

999.  This  sense  of  the  governmental  unity  is  further  developed 
by  the  later  great  poets  who  infused  into  it  higher  and  more  definite 
moral  elements.  The  polytheistic  view  continues  ;  to  the  thinkers 
of  the  time  there  was  no  more  difficulty  in  conceiving  of  a  single 
headship  along  with  many  deities  of  particular  functions  than  was 
felt  by  Hebrew  prophets  who  recognized  the  existence  of  foreign 

1  So  later,  for  example,  in  Plato,  necessity  appears  as  something  limiting  the 
deity.   See  below,  §  iooi.   Cf.  Cicero,  De  Fato. 

2  Cf.  the  Chinese  conception  of  the  supreme  order  of  the  world.  Possibly  this 
goes  back  to  the  general  savage  conception  of  mana. 


THE  HIGHER  THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT 


473 


deities,  with  Yahvveh  as  a  superior  god,  or  by  the  modern  Chris- 
tian world  with  its  apparatus  of  angels,  saints,  and  demons  along- 
side of  the  supreme  God.  For  Pindar  Zeus  is  lord  of  all  things 
and  is  far  removed  from  the  moral  impurities  of  the  popular  con- 
ception. T'Eschylus  represents  him  as  supreme  and  in  general  as 
just,  though  not  wholly  free  from  human  weaknesses.  A  real 
unit}-  of  the  world  is  set  forth  by  Sophocles :  there  is  a  divinely 
ordered  control  by  immutable  law,  and  the  will  of  Zeus  is  un- 
questioned. The  unitary  conception  is  found  also  in  Euripides  not- 
withstanding his  skeptical  attitude  toward  the  current  mythology. 
The  sense  of  symmetry  potent  in  the  poets  forced  them  to  this 
unitary  conception  of  government,  and  the  natural  progress  of 
ethical  feeling  led  them  to  ascribe  the  highest  ethical  qualities  to 
the  deities. 

1000.  Similar  motives  appear  in  the  speculations  of  the  Greek 
philosophers  :  Greek  philosophy  in  seeking  to  discover  the  essential 
nature  of  the  world  moved  definitely  toward  the  conception  of  its 
unity  —  so,  forexample,  as  early  as  the  sixth  century,  in  Xenoph- 
anes  and  Parmenides.  The  conception  of  a  supreme  spiritual 
ruler  of  the  world  appears  in  Heraclitus  and  Anaxagoras  (fifth 
century).  To  these  and  other  Greek  thinkers  the  unity  of  the 
world  and  the  dominance  of  mind  or  spirit  appeared  to  be  neces- 
sary assumptions.  The  most  definite  expression  of  these  concep- 
tions is  found  in  Plato  and  Aristotle.  According  to  Plato  (in  the 
Timaeus)  God,  the  eternal  Father,  created  the  world  (for  nothing 
can  be  created  without  a  cause),  brought  order  out  of  disorder  and 
made  the  universe  to  be  most  fair  and  good,  so  that  it  became  a 
rational  living  soul,  the  one  only-begotten  universe,  created  the  gods 
and  the  sons  of  the  gods,  and  framed  the  soul  to  be  the  ruler  of  the 
body.  Aristotle,  in  simpler  phrase,  represents  the  ground  of  the 
world  as  self-sufficient  Mind,  an  eternal  Power  (SvVa/us),  from  which 
all  action  or  actuality  (tvipyeia)  proceeds.1 

1001.  There  are  certain  apparent  limitations,  it  is  true,  to  this 
conception  of  unity.  Both  Plato  and  Aristotle  recognize  the  exist- 
ence of  a  host  of  subordinate  deities  (created  but  immortal)  to  whom 

1  Metaphysics^  be,  8  ;  xii,  6  f. 


474     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

is  assigned  a  share,  by  direction  of  the  supreme  God,  in  the  creation 
of  things ;  yet  essentially  these  deities  are  nothing  more  than  agents 
or  intermediaries  of  the  divine  activity,  and  may  be  compared  to 
the  natural  laws  and  agents  of  modern  theism  and,  more  exactly, 
to  the  Hebrew  angels  through  whom,  according  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, God  governed  the  world.  Plato  has  also  a  somewhat  vague 
notion  of  a  something  in  the  nature  of  the  material  of  the  world 
that  limits  or  constrains  the  divine  creative  power  —  a  "  necessity  " 
that  forces  the  deity  to  do  not  the  absolutely  best  but  the  best 
rfossible.  Perhaps  this  is  a  philosophical  formulation  of  the  old 
"  fate,"  perhaps  Plato  is  merely  trying  to  account  for  certain  sup- 
posed inconcinnities  and  inadequacies  in  the  world.  He  is  not  quite 
consistent  with  himself,  since  he  represents  the  creation  of  the 
universe  as  resulting  from  the  fact  that  necessity  yielded  to  the 
persuasion  of  mind,  which  thus  became  supreme.1  In  spite  of  this 
vagueness  his  view  is  unitary,  and  the  unitary  conception  is  con- 
tinued by  the  Stoics,  its  best  Stoic  expression  being  found  in  the 
famous  hymn  of  Cleanthes  to*  Zeus :  "  Nothing  occurs  on  earth 
apart  from  thee  "  and  "  We  are  thy  offspring."  2 

1002.  In  the  last  centuries  before  the  beginning  of  our  era  the 
Jews,  partly  under  Persian  and  Greek  influence,  clarified  their 
theistic  view,  attaining  a  practically  pure  monotheism,  only  retain- 
ing their  apparatus  of  angels  and  demons.  This  theistic  scheme 
passed  over  in  complete  form  to  early  Christianity,  in  which,  how- 
ever, greater  prominence  was  given  to  the  chief  demon,  the  Satan  ; 
his  larger  role  arose  from  the  fact  that  he  was  brought  into  sharp 
antagonism  with  the  Christ,  the  head  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 
When  Christianity  was  adopted  by  the  Graeco-Roman  world,  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity  was  worked  out  and  formulated  in  accord- 
ance with  Greek  and  Roman  philosophic  thought,  but  was  held 
not  to  impair  the  monotheistic  view  since  the  three  Persons  were 
regarded  as  being  in  substance  one.     Islam  adopted  the  Jewish 

1  Timmis,  4  7  f . 

2  Stobaeus,  Eclog<e%  ed.  Wachsmuth,  lib.  i,  cap.  i,  no.  12  ;  Pearson,  Fragments  of 
Zeno  and  Cleanthes ;  Eng.  tr.  in  Arnold,  Roman  Stoicism,  p.  85  ff.  The  quotation  in 
Acts  xvii,  28,  may  be  from  Cleanthes  or  from  Aratus.  On  the  Graeco-Roman  Stoicism 
and  the  relation  between  it  and  Christianity  see  Arnold,  op.  cit. 


THE  HIGHER   THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       475 

form  of  monotheism,  with  its  Satan  and  angels,  retaining  also  the 
old  Arabian  apparatus  of  demonic  beings  (the  jinn). 

1003.  A  certain  tendency  to  a  practically  unitary  view  is  discerni- 
ble in  the  cults  of  Isis  and  Mithra,  which  were  widely  diffused  in 
the  Roman  Empire.1  In  both  these  cults  the  main  interest  of  the 
worshipers  was  centered  in  a  single  deity,  though  other  deities  were 
recognized.    The  unifying  impulse  was  devotional,  not  philosophic. 

So  far  as  a  unitary  conception  of  the  divine  governmnt  of  the 
world  existed  it  must  be  referred  to  the  spirit  of  the  age  which  had 
outgrown  the  old  crude  polytheism.  Such  modern  monotheistic 
movements  as  the  Brahma-Samaj  and  the  Parsi  in  India,  the 
Babist  in  Persia,  and  the  reformed  Shinto  in  Japan  owe  much  to 
European  influence,  though  doubtless  some  part  of  them  is  the 
outcome  of  natural  progress  in  intellectual  and  moral  conceptions. 

Pantheistic  and  Nontheistic  Systems 

1004.  The  systems  of  theistic  thought  considered  above  all 
make  a  sharp  separation  between  God  and  the  world.  Plato  and 
Aristotle  regarded  mind  or  spirit  as  a  force  that  dominated  matter. 
The  Persian,  Hebrew,  and  Christian  theologies  conceive  of  the 
deity  as  transcendent,  standing  outside  of  and  above  the  world 
and  entering  into  communication  with  it  either  by  direct  revelation 
or  through  intermediaries.  To  certain  thinkers  of  ancient  times 
this  dualistic  conception  presented  difficulties  —  an  absolute  unity 
was  held  to  be  incompatible  with  such  separation  between  the 
world  and  God.  The  precise  nature  of  the  reflections  by  which 
the  earliest  philosophers  reached  this  conclusion  is  not  clearly  set 
forth,  but  it  may  be  surmised  that  in  general  there  were  two  lines 
of  thought  that  led  to  this  inference  :  first,  a  metaphysical  con- 
ception of  unity  as  something  that  was  demanded  by  the  sense  of 
perfectness  in  the  world  ;  and,  secondly,  observation  of  facts  that 
appeared  to  characterize  the  world  as  a  unit.  Among  several  dif- 
ferent peoples,   and  apparently  in  each   independently,   the   idea 

i  Apuleius,  Metamorphoses,  bk.  xi;  Roschcr,  Lexikon,  article  'Isis";  Cumont, 
Mysteries  of  Mithra;  id.,  Astrology  and  Religion  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans^ 
Index,  s.vv.  Isis  and  Scrapis  and  Mithra. 


476     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

arose  that  the  divine  manifests  itself  in  the  world  of  phenomena 
and  is  recognizable  only  therein.  Such  a  view  appears  in  India  in 
the  Vedanta  philosophy,  and  in  Greece  a  little  later  it  is  more  or 
less  involved  in  Orphic  theories  and  in  the  systems  of  several  phi- 
losophers. The  tendency  to  deify  nature  appears  even  in  writers 
who  do  not  wholly  exclude  gods  from  their  schemes  of  the  world 
—  in  the  sayings  of  Heraclitus,  for  example  :  "  All  things  are  one," 
"  From  all  comes  one,  and  from  one  comes  all."  A  similar  view  is 
attributed  to  Xenophanes  by  Aristotle,1  and  traces  of  such  a  con- 
ception appear  in  Euripides.2  For  the  modern  forms  of  pantheism, 
in  Spinoza  and  other  philosophers,  reference  must  be  made  to  the 
histories  of  philosophy. 

1005.  Pantheism  has  never  commended  itself  to  the  masses  of 
men.  It  is  definitely  theistic,  but  the  view  that  the  divine  power  is 
visible  only  in  phenomena  and  is  to  be  identified  practically  with 
the  world  is  one  that  men  in  general  find  difficult  to  comprehend. 
The  demand  is  for  a  deity  with  whom  one  may  enter  into  personal 
relations  —  the  simple  conception  of  a  god  who  dwells  apart  satis- 
fies the  religious  instincts  of  the  majority  of  men.  The  ethical 
questions  arising  from  pantheism  seem  to  them  perplexing :  how 
can  man  be  morally  responsible  when  it  is  the  deity  who  thinks 
and  acts  in  him  ?  and  how  can  he  have  any  sense  of  loyalty  to  a 
deity  whom  he  cannot  distinguish  from  himself  ?  Nor  do  men 
generally  demand  so  absolute  a  unity  as  is  represented  by  panthe- 
ism. Such  questions  as  those  relating  to  the  eternity  of  matter,  the 
possibility  of  the  existence  of  an  immaterial  being,  and  the  mode  in 
which  such  a  being,  if  it  exists,  could  act  on  matter,  have  not  seemed 
practical  to  the  majority  of  men.  Man  demands  a  method  of  wor- 
ship, and  pantheism  does  not  permit  organized  worship.  For  these 
reasons  it  has  remained  a  sentiment  of  philosophers,  though  it  has 
not  been  without  effect  in  modifying  popular  conceptions  of  the 
deity :  the  conception  of  the  immanence  of  God  in  the  world  (held 
in  many  Christian  orthodox  circles),  when  carried  to  its  legitimate 
consequences,  it  is  often  hard  to  distinguish  from  pantheism. 

1  Metaphysics,  i,  5  :  "  The  one  is  god." 

2  So  in  Goethe,  Wordsworth,  and  other  modern  poets. 


THE  HIGHER  THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       477 

1006.  Nontheistk  systems.  A  further  attempt  to  secure  a 
complete  unity  of  the  world  appears  in  those  systems  of  thought 
which  regard  the  world  as  self-sufficient  and,  therefore,  dispense 
with  extramundane  agency.  These  start  either  from  the  point  of 
view  of  man  and  human  life  or  from  contemplation  of  the  world. 
In  China  the  sense  of  the  sole  importance  of  the  moral  life  and 
the  impossibility  of  knowing  anything  beyond  mundane  life  led 
Confucius  practically  to  ignore  divine  agency.  He  did  not  deny 
the  existence  of  Powers  outside  of  men,  but  he  declined  to  speak 
of  them,  regarding  them  as  of  no  practical  importance.  This 
sort  of  agnosticism  appears  in  Greece  as  early  as  the  fifth  cen- 
tury B.C.,  when  Protagoras's  view  that  "  man  is  the  measure  of  all 
things  "  makes  extrahuman  Powers  superfluous.  Epicurus  reached 
a  similar  practical  atheism  apparently  from  a  scientific  view  of 
the  construction  of  the  world.  According  to  him  there  are  gods, 
but  they  are  otiose  —  living  a  life  of  happy  ease,  they  are  to  be 
thought  of  as  a  pleasant  phenomenon  in  the  world,  but  ineffective 
as  regards  human  fortunes,  and  men  may  go  their  ways  certain 
that  if  they  obey  the  laws  of  the  world  the  gods  will  not  interfere 
with  them. 

1007.  The  Sankhya  philosophy  of  India  dispenses  completely 
with  gods,  holding  that  the  primordial  stuff  is  eternal,  but  it  also 
holds  that  souls  have  a  separate  existence  and  are  eternal.  Thus 
a  species  of  dualism  emerges.  Buddhism  goes  a  step  further,  ignor- 
ing the  soul  as  well  as  gods.  It  is  agnostic  in  that,  admitting  the 
world  to  have  a  cause,  it  holds  that  it  is  impossible  to  know  this 
cause.  Its  practical  aim  —  to  get  rid  of  suffering  by  getting  rid  of 
desire,  and  thus  to  pass  into  a  blissful  state  of  existence  in  which 
apparently  there  is  to  be  no  effort  as  there  is  to  be  no  pain  —  has 
enabled  it  to  establish  a  vigorous  organization,  a  sort  of  church,  in 
which  the  undefined  universe  takes  the  place  of  a  personal  god, 
and  character  takes  the  place  of  soul,  this  character  (Karma)  passing 
from  one  being  to  another  without  the  assumption  of  identity  in 
the  beings  thus  united  in  destiny.1 

1  In  certain  regions,  especially  in  Tibet  and  Japan,  Buddhism  coalesces  with  pop- 
ular nature-cults  and  shamanistic  systems,  and  loses  its  nontheistic  character. 


478     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

1008.  In  Greece  pure  materialism  (similar  in  essence  to  the 
Sankhya)  took  the  shape  of  the  assumption  of  an  original  and 
eternal  mass  of  atoms  whence  have  come  all  forms  of  being  (so 
Democritus  in  the  fifth  century  B.C.),  and  this  conception  was 
adopted  by  Epicurus  and  expounded  at  length  by  Lucretius.1  The 
necessary  qualities  and  movements  being  attributed  to  the  atoms, 
the  conclusion  was  that  nothing  else  was  required  in  order  to  ex- 
plain the  world.  With  this  may  be  compared  the  view  of  Empedocles 
(fifth  century)  that  love  and  hate  (in  modern  phrase,  attraction  and 
repulsion)  are  the  creative  forces  of  the  world.  The  simplicity 
of  this  scheme  has  commended  it  to  many  minds  in  modern  as  in 
ancient  times.  Man,  it  is  said,  can  know  nothing  outside  of  phe- 
nomena, and,  so  far  as  regards  the  origin  of  things,  it  is  as  easy  to 
conceive  of  an  eternal  self-existent  mass  of  matter  as  of  an  eternal 
self-existent  deity.  The  nobler  part  of  man,  it  is  held,  is  not  thereby 
surrendered  —  reason  and  all  high  ethical  and  spiritual  ideals  have 
grown  naturally  out  of  the  primordial  mass.  In  such  systems  there 
is  often  the  hypothesis  of  an  original  force  or  life  resident  in  matter, 
and  this  force  or  life,  being  credited  with  all  that  has  issued  from 
it,  may  be  regarded  as  having  the  elements  of  personality,  and  in 
that  case  becomes  practically  a  deity.  Such  a  deistic  materialism 
approaches  pantheism  nearly. 

General  Survey  of  the  Theistic  Development 

1009.  The  theistic  conceptions  of  men  have  followed  the  general 
line  of  social  development.  All  systems  and  shades  of  thought  are 
faithfully  reflected  in  the  various  ideas  that  men  have  formed  for 
themselves  of  the  gods.  Human  nature  is  the  highest  thing  known 
to  men,  and  their  conception  of  supernatural  forces  has  been  based 
on  ideals  derived  from  experience.  The  sphere  of  divine  activity 
has  been  determined  for  men  by  their  systems  of  physical  science ; 
the  moral  character  of  the  gods  is  a  reflection  of  human  ethical 
conceptions  ;  the  internal  activity  of  the  deity  in  man's  mind  is 
denned  by  man's  spiritual  experience. 

1  Cf.  Santayana,  "  Lucretius,"  in  his  Three  Philosophical  Poets. 


THE  HIGHER   THEISTIC  DEVELOPMENT       479 

1010.  From  the  earliest  times  the  extent  to  which  the  gods  were 
supposed  to  intervene  in  human  affairs  has  been  fixed  by  scientific 
observation,  by  the  knowledge  of  natural  law  —  the  gods  have  been 
called  on  to  intervene  only  when  it  was  necessary  because  ordinary 
powers  failed.  When  finally  the  conception  is  reached  that  all  nature 
is  governed  by  natural  law,  the  theistic  view  assumes  that  the  deity 
works  through  ordinary  natural  means,  and  the  supposition  of  par- 
ticular interventions  is  rejected  by  the  mass  of  scientific  thinkers. 
It  was  natural  in  early  times  to  suppose  that  reward  and  punish- 
ment were  administered  by  the  deity  in  this  world  in  accordance 
with  the  principles  of  right,  that  the  good  prospered  and  the  bad 
failed ;  but  this  view  has  vanished  before  observation,  and,  by 
those  who  demand  an  exact  accordance  between  conduct  and  for- 
tunes, the  final  compensations  of  life  have  been  relegated  to  the 
other  world. 

1011.  The  belief  in  miracles,  however,  has  never  completely 
vanished  from  the  world.  A  miracle  is  an  intervention  by  the 
deity  whereby  a  natural  law  is  set  aside.  No  a  priori  reasoning 
can  ever  prove  or  disprove  the  possibility  of  miracles  —  such  proof 
or  disproof  would  involve  complete  knowledge  of  the  universe  or 
of  the  divine  power  in  the  universe,  and  this  is  impossible  for  man. 
The  indisposition  to  accept  a  miracle  has  arisen  from  the  conviction 
that  the  demand  for  interventions  that  set  aside  the  natural  order 
is  a  reflection  on  the  wisdom  of  the  Creator's  arrangement  of  the 
world,  and  further  from  long-continued  observation  of  the  domi- 
nance of  natural  law,  and,  when  appeal  is  made  to  alleged  miracu- 
lous occurrences,  from  the  arbitrary  way  in  which,  according  to  the 
reports,  these  have  been  introduced.  In  the  records  of  peoples  we 
find  that  miracles  increase  in  number  and  magnitude  in  proportion 
as  we  go  back  to  dim  times  without  exact  historical  documents. 
They  appear,  it  is  held,  in  connection  usually  with  insignificant 
affairs  while  the  really  great  affairs  in  later  times  are  left  with- 
out miraculous  elements.1    The  history  of  the  world,  so  historical 

1  The  great  exception  is  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  regarded  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment and  by  the  mass  of  orthodox  Christians  as  an  historical  fact,  and  one  of  infinite 
significance  for  the  salvation  of  the  world. 


48o     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

science  holds,  receives  a  satisfactory  explanation  from  the  char- 
acter of  the  general  laws  of  human  nature,  and  the  principle  of 
parsimony  demands  that  no  unnecessary  elements  of  action  be  in- 
troduced into  affairs.  The  exclusion  of  miracles  from  the  world  does 
not  exclude  divine  agency  and  government ;  it  only  defines  the 
latter  as  being  in  accordance  with  man's  observation  of  natural  law. 

1012.  Philosophy  constructs  the  constitution  of  the  deity  and 
the  relation  of  divine  elements  to  the  world.  Whether  the  deity 
stands  outside  of  the  world  or  within  it,  whether  the  divine  power 
is  unitary  or  dual  or  plural,  or  whether  there  is  any  need  to  assume 
a  power  outside  of  physical  nature  —  these  are  the  questions  that 
are  discussed  by  philosophy,  whose  conclusions  sometimes  favor  a 
religious  view  of  the  world,  sometimes  oppose  it.  Few  persons  are 
able  to  follow  elaborate  philosophic  lines  of  thought  —  the  majority 
of  men  accept  the  simple  doctrine  of  a  personal  god  who  is  gener- 
ally supposed  to  stand  outside  of  the  world.  The  controlling  con- 
sideration here  is  that  everything  must  have  a  cause  —  a  line  of 
reasoning  in  accordance  with  common  sense,  but  not  always,  in  its 
crude  form,  regarded  by  philosophers  as  decisive. 

1013.  The  moral  character  of  a  deity  is  always  in  accordance 
with  the  moral  ideas  of  his  worshipers.  Religions  have  sometimes 
been  divided  into  the  ethical  and  the  nonethical ;  but  so  far  as 
the  character  of  the  deity  is  concerned  no  such  division  holds,  for 
there  never  has  been  a  supernatural  Power  that  has  not  reflected 
the  moral  ideas  of  its  time  and  place.  A  cannibal  god  is  not  only 
natural  in  a  cannibal  society,  but  he  represents  moral  ideals,  namely, 
the  attempt  to  acquire  strength  by  absorbing  the  physical  substance 
of  men.  The  deity  who  deceives  or  is  vindictive  arises  in  a  society 
in  which  deceit  and  vindictiveness  are  regarded  as  virtues.  The 
pictures  of  what  we  regard  as  immoralities  in  the  deity  as  given  in 
the  Iliad  and  in  the  Old  Testament  were  not  regarded  as  immoral 
by  the  writers.  The  progress  in  the  characterization  of  the  deity 
has  been  not  by  the  introduction  of  an  ethical  element,  but  by  the 
purification  and  elevation  of  the  already  existing  ethical  element.1 

1  An  emotional  element  possessing  moral  force  may  exist  in  any  religion ;  cf. 
below,  §§  1167,  1 192,  1 199. 


CHAPTER   X 
SOCIAL   DEVELOPMENT   OF  RELIGION 

1014.  Religion  is  social  because  man  is  a  social  animal.  This 
does  not  exclude  individual  religion  —  in  fact  religion  must  have 
begun  with  individuals,  as  is  the  case  with  all  social  movements. 
Morality,  indeed,  understood  as  a  system  of  conduct  among  human 
beings,  could  not  exist  except  in  a  society  which  included  at  least 
two  persons ;  but  if  we  could  imagine  a  quite  isolated  rational 
being,  he  might  be  religious  if,  as  is  perfectly  possible,  he  conceived 
himself  as  standing  in  relation  with  some  supernatural  being  or 
beings.  This  question,  however,  is  not  a  practical  one  —  there  is 
no  evidence  of  such  isolation,  and  no  probability  that  there  ever 
has  been  a  time  when  man  was  not  social. 

1015.  It  is  generally  agreed  that  men  lived  at  first  in  small 
detached  groups,  gradually  forming  tribes  and  nations,  and  finally 
effecting  a  social  fusion  of  nations.  Religious  worship  has  followed 
these  changes.  Religion  is  simply  one  line  of  social  growth  existing 
along  with  others,  science,  philosophy,  art ;  all  these,  as  is  remarked 
above,1  go  on  together,  each  influencing  and  influenced  by  the 
others.  Human  life  has  always  been  unitary  —  no  one  part  can 
be  severed  from  the  others ;  it  is  a  serious  error,  impairing  the 
accuracy  of  the  conception  of  religion,  to  regard  it  as  something 
apart  from  the  rest  of  human  life. 

1016.  The  external  history  of  religion,  then,  is  the  history  of 
social  growth  in  the  line  of  religious  organization ;  that  is,  it  has 
been  determined  by  religious  outward  needs  in  accordance  with  the 
growth  of  ideas.  In  the  consideration  of  this  history  we  have  to  note 
a  growth  in  ritual,  in  devotional  practices,  and  in  the  organization 
of  religious  usages,  first  in  tribal  or  national  communities  and  then 
in  religious  communities  transcending  national  and  racial  boundaries. 

i§i3ff. 

481 


482     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

External  Worship 

1017.  We  assume  a  human  society  recognizing  some  supernatu- 
ral or  extrahuman  object  or  force  that  is  regarded  as  powerful  and 
as  standing  in  some  sort  of  effective  relation  with  human  life.  It 
is  possible  that  societies  exist  that  do  not  recognize  any  such  object 
or  force  or,  recognizing  them,  do  not  employ  any  means  of  enter- 
ing into  relation  with  them.  Such  cases,  if  they  exist  (and  their 
existence  has  not  been  fully  established),  we  may  pass  by  with  the 
remark  that  the  absence  of  worship  need  be  taken  to  show  only 
that  ritual  has  been  a  slow  growth. 

Our  information  regarding  the  least-developed  communities  in- 
dicates that  with  them  religion,  when  it  exists,  is  an  affair  of 
custom,  of  tradition  and  usage,  handed  down  during  a  period  the 
history  of  which  we  have  no  means  of  knowing.  Worship  as  it 
first  appears  consists  of  ceremonies,  generally,  perhaps  always,  re- 
garded as  having  objective  effectiveness.1  The  ritual  act  itself,  in  the 
earliest  systems,  is  powerful,  in  a  sort  magical,  but  tends  to  lose  this 
character  and  take  on  the  forms  of  ordinary  human  intercourse. 

1018.  The  precise  ways  in  which  extrahuman  Powers  were  first 
approached  by  men  it  is  not  possible  now  to  determine  —  these 
procedures  lie  far  back  in  a  dim  prehistoric  time.  Coming  down 
to  our  first  knowledge  of  religious  man  it  may  be  assumed  that 
the  superhuman  Powers  recognized  by  him  were  of  varying  sorts : 
a  quasi-impersonal  energy  which,  however,  must  probably  be  as- 
cribed ultimately  to  a  personal  being;  animals;  ghosts;  spirits  resi- 
dent in  objects ;  anthropomorphic  beings.  With  all  these  it  was 
necessary  to  establish  relations,  and  while  the  methods  employed 
varied  slightly  according  to  the  nature  of  the  object  of  worship,  the 
fundamental  cultic  principle  appears  to  have  been  the  same  for  all. 
Several  different  methods  of  approaching  the  Powers  appear  in 
the  material  known  to  us,  and  these  may  be  mentioned  without 
attempting  exact  chronological  arrangement. 

1019.  One  of  the  earliest  methods  of  establishing  a  relation  with 
the  Powers  is  by  certain  processes  —  acts  or  words.    The  most 

1  See  above,  Chapter  iii. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  483 

definite  example  of  a  mere  process  is  that  found  among  the  ( 'entral 
Australians,  the  nature  of  which,  however,  is  not  yet  well  under- 
stood. They  perform  ceremonies  intended  to  procure  a  supply  of 
food.  It  is  not  quite  clear  whether  these  ceremonies  are  merely 
imitations  of  animals  and  other  things  involved,  or  whether  they 
contain  some  recognition  of  a  superhuman  Power.  In  the  former 
case  they  are  magical,  not  religious  in  the  full  sense  of  the  term. 
But  if  they  involve  a  belief  in  some  force  or  power  with  which  man 
may  enter  into  relation,  however  dim  and  undefined  this  conception 
may  be,  then  they  must  be  regarded  as  belonging  definitely  in  the 
sphere  of  religion.  A  certain  direct  effect  is  in  many  cases  sup- 
posed to  issue  from  ritualistic  acts,  a  belief  that  is  doubtless  a 
survival  of  the  old  conception  of  mana.1 

1020.  In  many  cases  efficacy  is  attached  by  savages  to  singing 
—  the  word  "sing"  is  used  as  equivalent  to  "exert  power  in  a 
superhuman  way."  It  is  not  the  musical  part  of  this  procedure 
that  is  effective  —  the  singing  is  simply  the  natural  tendency  of 
early  man  —  the  power  lies  in  the  words  which  may  be  regarded 
as  charms.  A  charm  is  primarily  a  form  of  words  which  has  power 
to  produce  certain  results  with  or  without  the  intervention  of  the 
gods.2  In  the  form  of  an  invocation  of  a  deity  the  charm  belongs 
to  a  comparatively  late  stage  of  religion  ;  but  where  its  power  lies 
wholly  in  its  words,  it  involves  merely  some  dim  sense  of  relation, 
not  necessarily  religious.  Obviously  the  idea  of  law  underlies  all 
such  procedures,  but  the  law  may  be  a  sort  of  natural  law  and  the 
charm  will  then  not  be  religious.  Religious  charms  are  to  be 
sharply  distinguished  from  prayers ;  a  prayer  is  a  simple  request, 
a  charm  is  an  instrument  of  force.3  The  history  of  the  growth  of 
savage  charms  it  is  impossible  for  us  to  recover ;  it  can  only  be 
supposed  that  they  have  grown  up  through  a  vast  period  of  time 
and  have  been  constructed  out  of  various  signs  and  experiences  of 
all  sorts  that  appeared  to  connect  certain  words  with  certain  results. 
There  is  no  evidence  that  they  came  originally  or  usually  from 

1  See  above,  §§  128,  131,  231  ff. 

2  Cf.  article  "  Charms  and  Amulets''  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics.  3  Cf.  Marctt,  Threshold  of  Religion,  p.  77  ff. 


484     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

prayers  that  had  lost  their  petitionary  character,  petrified  prayers, 
so  to  speak,  of  which  there  remained  only  the  supposition  that 
they  could  gain  their  ends,  though  bits  of  prayers,  taken  merely  as 
words,  are  sometimes  supposed  to  have  such  potency.  Charms 
and  prayers  are  found  side  by  side  in  early  stages  of  religion ;  the 
former  tend  to  decrease,  the  latter  to  increase.  Charms  are  allied 
to  amulets,  exorcism,  and  to  magic  in  general.1 

1021.  Certain  processes  and  words  are  supposed  to  have  power 
to  summon  the  dead  and  to  gain  from  them  a  knowledge  of  the 
future.  This  is  a  case  of  coercion  by  magical  means.  Nonmagical 
coercion  belongs  to  a  relatively  late  period  in  religious  history  and 
may  be  passed  over  at  this  point.  It  is  not  in  itself  incompatible 
with  religion ;  a  god  is  subject  to  caprice  and  ill  humor,  and  may 
have  to  be  controlled,  and  we  know  that  coercion  of  the  gods  has 
been  practiced  by  many  peoples,  with  the  full  sanction  of  the 
religious  authorities.'2  But  coercive  procedures  do  not  accord  with 
the  general  line  of  social  development.  The  natural  tendency  is  to 
make  friends  with  the  gods,  and  coercive  methods  have  died  out 
with  the  growth  of  society. 

1022.  The  methods  of  establishing  friendly  relations  with  the 
supernatural  Powers  are  the  same  as  those  which  are  employed  to 
approach  human  rulers,  namely,  by  gifts  and  by  messengers  or 
intermediaries. 

Gifts.  The  custom  of  offering  gifts  to  the  dead  is  universal.3 
Among  low  tribes  and  in  highly  civilized  peoples  (the  Egyptians 
and  others)  things  are  placed  by  the  grave  which  it  is  supposed 
the  spirits  of  the  dead  will  need.  Food  and  drink  are  supplied, 
and  animals  and  human  beings  are  slain  and  left  to  serve  as  min- 
isters to  the  ghosts  in  the  other  world.  Possibly  these  provisions 
for  the  dead  are  sometimes  suggested  by  sentiments  of  affection, 
but  more  commonly  the  object  in  making  the  provision  appears  to 
be  to  secure  the  favor  of  the  deceased :  ghosts  were  powerful  for 

1  Examples  are  found  in  J.  H.  King,  The  Supernatural,  Index,  s.v. ;  Tylor, 
Primitive  Culture,  Index,  s.v.;  L.  T.  Hobhouse,  Morals  in  Evolution,  Index,  s.v.; 
and  see  the  references  in  these  works.  2  See  above,  §  3. 

3  Spencer,  Principles  of  Sociology,  i,  280  ff . ;  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Develop- 
ment of  the  Moral  Ideas,  ii,  550  al. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIC  I  OX  485 

good  or  for  evil  —  they  were  numerous,  always  hovering  round 
the  living,  and  the  main  point  was  to  gain  their  good  will.  For  a 
similar  reason  such  gifts  were  made  to  spirits  and  to  gods.  It  was 
a  common  custom  to  leave  useful  articles  by  sacred  trees  and 
stones,  or  to  cast  them  into  rivers  or  into  the  sea.  The  food  and 
drink  provided  was  always  that  in  ordinary  use  among  the  wor- 
shipers :  grain,  salt,  oil,  wine,  to  which  were  often  added  cooking 
and  other  utensils.  It  was  common  also  to  offer  the  flesh  of 
animals,  as,  for  example,  among  the  Eskimo,  the  American  Indians 
(the  Pawnees  and  others),  the  Bantu,  the  Limbus,  and  the  Todas 
of  Southern  India.1  It  was  supposed  that  the  god,  when  he  was 
in  need  of  food,  sometimes  used  means  to  stimulate  his  worshipers 
on  earth  to  make  him  an  offering. 

1023.  Since  it  was  obvious  that  the  food  set  forth  for  the  spirit 
or  deity  remained  untouched,  it  was  held  that  the  gods  consumed 
only  the  soul  of  the  food.  This  conception,  which  is  found  in  very 
early  times,  was  natural  to  those  who  held  that  every  object,  even 
pots  and  pans,  had  its  soul.  The  ascending  smoke  carried  with  it 
the  essence  of  the  food  to  spirits  and  deities  —  they  smelled  the 
fragrance  and  were  satisfied.2  The  visible  material  part  of  the 
offering,  thus  left  untouched  by  the  god,  was  often  divided  among 
his  worshipers,  and  generally  it  furnished  a  welcome  meal. 
These  communal  feasts  are  found  in  various  parts  of  the  world, 
among  the  Ainu  of  the  Japan  Archipelago,  the  American  Indians, 
and  others.3  They  were  social  and  economical  functions.  It  was 
desirable  that  the  good  food  not  consumed  by  the  deity  should  be 
utilized  for  the  benefit  of   his  worshipers.     There  was  also  the 


1  Dorsey,  Skidi  Pawnee,  p.  341  ;  article  "  Bantu"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of 
Religion  and  Ethics,  ii,  359  ;  Rivers,  Tlie  Todas,  p.  393  ;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii, 
392  ;  Westermarck,  op.  cit.,  ii,  518  al. 

2  Tylor,  op.  cit.,  ii,  385,  395  al. ;  Gen.  viii,  21. 

3  Batchelor,  The  Ainu:  Miss  Fletcher,  Indian  Ceremonies;  Hollis,  The  Nandi, 
p.  12:  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  pp.449  ff.,  528;  Saussaye,  Religion  of  the  Teu- 
tons, pp.  yj^,  383  ;  K.  M.  Meyer,  Altgermanische  Religionsgeschiehte,  pp.  416,  419  ff. : 
N.  W.  Thomas,  article  "  Animals  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 
Cf.,  for  the  Hebrews,  \V.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  p.  217  ff. :  for  the 
Greeks,  Gardner  and  Jevons,  Greek  Antiquities,  p.  245  f. ;  Miss  Harrison,  Prole- 
gomena to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion,  chap.  x. 


486     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

natural  desire  and  custom  of  eating  with  friends.  To  this  was 
added  the  belief  that  the  bodies  of  such  animals  possessed  powers 
which  the  worshiper  might  acquire  by  eating.  The  powers  and 
qualities  of  the  animal  were  both  natural  and  sacred,  or  divine. 
The  devotion  of  the  dog,  the  courage  and  physical  power  of  the 
bear,  the  cleverness  of  the  fox  —  all  such  natural  powers  might 
be  assimilated  by  the  worshiper;  and  since  the  animal  was  itself 
sacred,  its  body,  taken  into  the  human  body,  communicated  a 
certain  special  capacity.  Thus  the  virtue  of  the  communal  feast 
was  twofold :  it  placated  the  supernatural  Power,  and  it  procured 
for  the  worshiper  a  satisfactory  meal  and  probably  also  an  infusion 
of  superhuman  power.  The  favor  of  the  deity  was  gained  simply 
by  the  presents  offered  him ;  in  these  early  times  there  is  no 
indication  of  the  belief  that  there  was  a  recognized  sacramental 
sharing  of  sacred  food  by  the  gods  and  their  worshipers. 

1024.  Messengers.  The  supernatural  Power  was  sometimes  ap- 
proached by  a  messenger  who  was  instructed  to  ask  a  favor.  The 
messenger  was  an  animal  regarded  as  sacred,  akin  to  men  and 
to  gods,  and  therefore  fitted  to  be  an  intermediary.  Examples 
of  such  a  method  of  approaching  a  deity  are  found  among  the 
Ainu,  in  Borneo,  and  among  the  North  American  Indians.  The 
Ainu,  before  slaying  the  bear  who  is  to  serve  as  messenger,  de- 
liver to  him  an  elaborate  address  in  which  he  is  implored  to  repre- 
sent to  his  divine  kinsfolk  above  how  well  he  has  been  treated  on 
earth  and  thus  gain  their  favor ;  he  is  also  invited  to  return  to 
earth  that  he  may  be  again  captured  and  slain.  His  flesh  is  eaten 
by  the  worshipers,  and  his  head  is  set  up  as  an  object  of  worship. 
Thus,  he  is  after  death  a  divine  Power  and  a  portion  of  his  own 
flesh  is  offered  to  his  head,  but  this  is  simply  to  gain  his  good  will, 
and  there  is  no  suggestion  of  a  joint  feast  of  gods  and  men.1 
Somewhat  like  this  is  the  procedure  in  Borneo,  where  on  special 
occasions  when  some  particular  favor  is  desired,  a  pig  is  dispatched 
with  a  special  message  to  the  gods.2  In  America  the  sacred  turtle, 
regarded  as  a  brother  to  the  tribe  and  affectionately  reverenced  by 
his  human  brethren,  is  dispatched  with  tears  to  the  other  world  to 

i  Batchelor,  The  Ainu.  2  A.  C.  Iladdon,  Head-hunters,  p.  353  ff. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  487 

join  his  kinsmen  there  and  be  an  ambassador  and  friend.1  A  simi- 
lar conception  is  to  be  found  perhaps  in  the  great  Vedic  animal 
sacrifice  in  which  the  victim  was  likewise  made  ready  by  ceremonies 
to  go  to  the  heavenly  court  and  there  stand  as  the  friend  of  the 
worshipers.2 

1025.  In  all  these  cases  there  was  a  certain  identification  of  the 
victim  with  men  on  the  one  side  and  gods  on  the  other.  This  is 
simply  a  part  of  the  general  belief  in  the  kinship  existing  between 
all  forms  of  being.  Early  men  in  choosing  animal  gifts  for  the 
gods,  or  an  animal  as  messenger  to  them,  could  not  go  astray,  for 
all  animals  were  sacred.  The  effective  means  of  procuring  the 
favor  of  the  supernatural  Powers  is  always  a  friendly  gift  or  a 
friendly  messenger.  When  animals  lost  their  religious  prestige, 
their  ambassadorial  function  gave  way  to  the  mediatorial  function 
of  gods  and  men. 

Incense,  tobacco,  and  other  such  things  that  were  burned  before 
the  deity  are  also  to  be  regarded  as  food,  though  in  the  course  of 
time,  when  the  recollection  of  this  primitive  character  was  lost,  a 
conventional  significance  was  attached  to  the  act  of  burning.  A 
more  refined  period  demanded  more  refined  food  for  the  gods, 
such  as  ambrosia  and  nectar,  but  these  also  were  finally  given  up. 

1026.  Food  was  conveyed  to  the  gods  either  by  simply  laying 
it  down  at  some  sacred  place  (where  it  was  devoured  by  beasts, 
but  more  generally  taken  by  official  ministers  of  the  god),  or  by 
burning  it.8  In  the  body  of  the  victim  the  blood  came  to  play  the 
most  important  part  as  an  expiatory  force.  Early  observation,  as 
is  pointed  out  above,4  showed  that  the  life  was  in  the  blood,  and 
so  a  principle  of  economy  naturally  suggested  that  it  would  be  suf- 
ficient to  offer  the  blood  to  the  deity,  though  this  was  generally 
supplemented  by  some  choice   portion  of   the  flesh.     Thus,   the 

1  F.  II.  Cushing,  "  My  Adventures  in  Zuni"  in  The  Century  Magazine  for  May, 
1883. 

2  Cf.  Hubert  and  Mauss,  "  Essai  sur  le  sacrifice"  in  Annee  sociologique ;  ii 
(1898). 

3  A  more  socially  refined  conception  appears  in  the  lectisternium,  in  which  the 
gods  sit  at  table  with  their  human  friends.  Cf.  Wissowa,  Religion  der  Rb'mer,  p.  355  ff. ; 
Fowler,  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People,  Index,  s.v.  4  §23. 


488     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

opinion  arose  that  blood  had  a  special  expiatory  power,  and  this 
conception  remained  to  a  late  period.1  But  the  expiatory  power 
rested  finally  on  the  fact  that  the  blood  was  a  gift  of  food  to  the 
gods.  The  gift  was  most  effective,  apparently,  when  the  whole  of 
the  animal  was  burned,  since  thus  the  greatest  honor  was  shown 
the  deity  and  the  most  ample  satisfaction  of  his  bodily  needs  was 
furnished.  The  holocaust  proper  appears  in  religious  history  at  a 
comparatively  late  stage,  but  the  essence  of  it  is  found  in  all  early 
procedures  in  which  the  whole  of  any  object  is  given  to  the  deity. 

1027.  Human  sacrifice.  That  taste  for  human  flesh  on  the  part 
of  men  is  not  unnatural  is  shown  by  the  prevalence  of  cannibal  cus- 
toms in  many  parts  of  the  world.  When  such  customs  existed,  it 
was  natural  that  the  flesh  of  human  beings  should  be  offered  to 
the  supernatural  Powers. 

The  slaying  of  human  beings  at  the  graves  of  deceased  clans- 
men or  friends  has  prevailed  extensively,  though  apparently  not 
among  the  lowest  tribes ;  it  represents  a  certain  degree  of  reflec- 
tion or  intensity ;  it  is  found  in  the  midway  period  when  religious 
customs  were  fairly  well  organized  and  when  manners  were  not 
yet  refined.  Not  every  slaughter  at  a  grave,  however,  is  an  act  of 
religious  offering  to  the  dead.  It  is  sometimes  prompted  by  the 
spirit  of  revenge,  to  ease  the  mind  of  the  slayer,  or  perhaps  by 
desire  to  do  honor  to  the  deceased  —  doubtless  there  was  a  senti- 
ment of  piety  toward  the  dead. 

1028.  The  slaughter  of  slaves  and  wives  to  be  the  attendants 
of  the  deceased  in  the  other  world  is  of  the  nature  of  an  offering 
—  it  is  intended  to  procure  the  good  will  of  the  ghost.  The  self- 
immolation  of  widows  and  other  dependents  was  in  some  cases  a 
selfish  act.  It  was  supposed  that  the  persons  thus  offering  them- 
selves up  would  procure  certain  advantages  in  the  other  world, 
while  at  the  same  time  they  would  there  minister  to  the  manes  of 
their  husbands  or  lords. 

As  there  was  no  practical  difference  between  ghosts  and  spirits 
or  gods  in  respect  of  power  and  influence  in  human  life,  the  offer- 
ing of  human  beings  to  these  last  came  as  a  matter  of  course. 

1  For  the  worshiper  the  blood  had  strengthening  power. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  489 

Their  bodily  appetites  were  the  same  as  those  of  men  —  they  were 
fond  of  human  flesh.  Wherever  it  was  necessary  to  invoke  their 
special  aid  this  sort  of  offering  was  presented :  for  the  success  of 
crops ;  to  insure  the  stability  of  houses  and  bridges  1 ;  to  avert  or 
remove  calamities,  such  as  pestilence  and  defeat  in  battle. 

1029.  While  in  the  simpler  societies  human,  sacrifice  was  simply 
an  offering  of  food  to  the  Powers,  in  later  times  it  came  to  be  con- 
ceived of  as  the  devotion  of  an  object  to  the  deity,  and  thus  as  a 
sign  of  obedience  and  dependence.  The  offering  of  firstborn  chil- 
dren was  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  god  was  the  giver  of 
children  as  of  crops.  The  sacrifice  of  the  dearest  object,  it  was 
supposed,  would  soften  the  heart  of  the  deity.  In  some  cases  the 
person  who  was  supposed  to  be  the  occasion  or  source  of  misfor- 
tune was  offered  up.  In  general,  human  sacrifice  followed  the  lines 
of  all  other  sacrifices  and  disappeared  when  it  became  repugnant 
to  humane  and  refined  feelings. 

1030.  The  testimonies  to  its  existence  are  so  numerous  that  we 
may  suppose  it  to  have  been  universal  among  men."2  There  is  a 
trace  of  its  early  existence  in  Egypt.3  In  the  Semitic  region  it  is 
known  to  have  been  practiced  by  the  Phoenicians,  Carthaginians, 
Moabites,  Hebrews,  Arameans,  and  some  Arabs.4  There  is  no  evi- 
dence of  the  practice  in  Babylonia ;  an  indication  of  its  existence 
in  Assyria  is  possibly  found  in  an  Old  Testament  passage.5  Its 
existence  in  early  times  in  India  is  held  to  be  implied  in  the  Rig- 
Veda.6  It  appears  in  the  Brahmanic  period  also  :  a  man  (who  had 
to  be  a  Brahman  or  a  Warrior)  was  bought,  allowed  liberty  and 
the  satisfaction  of  all  his  desires  (except  that  sexual  intercourse 
was  forbidden)  for  one  year,  and  then  ceremonially  slain.7  It  is 
only  recently  that  the  sacrifice  of  children  in  the  New  Year  festival 

1  1  Kings,  xvi,  34  ;  article  "  Bridge  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics. 

2  Cf.  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  Index,  s.v. 
Human  Sacrifice.  3  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,    pp.  325,  411,  47S. 

4  Pietschmann,  Phonizier,  p.  167  ;  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  403  ;  2  Kings,  iii, 
27  ;  Exod.  xiii ;  i,  13  ;  Noldeke,  article  "Arabs  (Ancient)  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia 
of  Religion  and  Ethics.  5  2  Kings,  xvii,  31.  ,;  Rig-Veda,  x,  [8,  8  ;  viii,  51,2. 

7  S&nkhayan  Sranta  Sutra,  xvi,  10-14  ;  Weber,  Indischc  Strcifen,  i,  65  ;  Hopkins, 
Religions  of  India,  pp.  196,  198. 


490     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

at  the  mouth  of  the  Ganges  has  been  abolished  ;  and  it  is  doubtful 
whether,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  British  Government,  it  has 
been  completely  put  down  among  the  wild  tribes,  as  the  Gonds 
and  the  Khonds.1  The  records  of  China,  from  the  eighth  cen- 
tury B.C.  onward  are  said  to  prove  the  existence  of  human  sacrifice.2 
Among  the  ancient  Scandinavians  and  Germans  it  was  frequent.3 
In  more  recent  times  the  practice  is  known  either  to  exist  or  to 
have  existed  in  Polynesia  (Fiji,  Samoa),  Melanesia  (Florida  Islands), 
Borneo  (formerly),4  and  North  America  (the  Iroquois,  the  Natchez, 
the  Florida  peninsula,  and  the  Southwest  coast).5  Nowhere  does 
it  appear  on  so  large  a  scale  as  in  Mexico ;  and  it  existed  also  in 
Peru.6  In  Africa  it  was  practiced  to  a  frightful  extent  in  Ashanti- 
land  and  Dahomiland  and  more  guardedly  in  Yoruba.7 

1031.  Its  gradual  disappearance  (a  result  of  increasing  refine- 
ment of  feeling)  was  marked  by  the  substitution  of  other  things 
for  human  victims  or  of  aliens  for  tribesmen.  In  early  times  indeed 
it  seems  to  have  been  slaves  and  captives  taken  in  war  that  were 
commonly  sacrificed.  In  more  civilized  times  the  blood  of  a  tribes- 
man, as  more  precious  than  other  blood,  was  regarded  as  being 
more  acceptable  to  the  deity,  and  it  was  then  a  sign  of  advance 
when  aliens  were  substituted  for  tribesmen.  Lower  animals  were 
sacrificed  in  place  of  men  :  in  India,  where  the  recently  sown  fields 
had  been  fertilized  with  human  blood,  it  became  the  practice  to  kill 
a  chicken  instead  of  a  human  being;  and  so  in  the  story  of  Abraham 
(Gen.  xxii)  a  ram  is  substituted  for  the  human  being.8    Elsewhere 


1  Hopkins,  op.  cit.,  p.  526  ff.  Cf.  also  the  practice  of  the  thugs,  which  has  now 
been  put  a  stop  to  by  the  British  Government. 

2  De  Groot,  in  Saussaye,  Lehrbuch  der  Religionsgeschichte,  2d  ed.,  p.  77  f. 

3  Saussaye,  Religion  of  the  Teutons,  Index,  s.v. 

4  Williams,  Fiji;  Turner,  Samoa;  Codrington,  The  Melanesians. 

5  W'aitz-Gerland,  Anthropologic  der Nattirvolker,  Index;  J.  G.  Miiller,  Geschichtc 
der  amerikanischen  Urreligionen,  Index;  Gatschet,  Migration  Legend  of  the  Creeks, 

6  Payne,  The  New  World,  Called  America.  In  Mexico  the  victim  was  surrounded 
with  luxuries  (including  wives)  and  treated  as  a  god  for  one  year  and  then  sacrificed 
(Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  1st  ed.,  ii,  218  ff. ;  2d  ed.,  ii,  342  f.). 

7  A.  B.  Ellis,  Tshi,  Ewe,  and  Yoruba. 

8  For  such  substitutions  in  Greece  see  Gardner  and  Jevons,  Greek  Antiqitities, 
p.  243  f. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  491 

paste  images  are  offered  to  the  deity  as  representing  men  ;  an 
interesting  development  is  found  in  Yoruba,  where  the  proposed 
victim,  instead  of  being  sacrificed,  becomes  the  protector  of  the 
sacrificer ;  that  is,  he  is  regarded  as  substantially  divine,  as  he 
would  have  been  had  he  been  sacrificed.1 

1032.  Along  with  gifts,  which  formed  perhaps  the  earliest 
method  of  conciliating  divine  beings,  we  find  in  very  early  times 
a  number  of  procedures  in  honor  of  the  deity,  and  intended  in 
a  general  way  to  procure  divine  favor.  Among  these  procedures 
dances  and  processions  are  prominent.  The  dance,  as  is  observed 
above,2  is  simply  the  transference  to  religious  rites  of  a  common 
social  act.  It  is,  however,  often  supposed  to  have  been  communi- 
cated supernaturally,  and  in  some  cases  it  attains  a  high  religious 
significance  by  its  association  with  stories  of  divine  persons.  This 
organized  symbolic  dance  has  been  developed  to  the  greatest  extent 
among  certain  North  American  Indian  tribes.3  Here  every  actor 
and  every  act  represents  a  personage  or  procedure  in  a  myth,  and 
thus  the  dance  embodies  religious  conceptions.  This  sort  of  sym- 
bolism has  been  adopted  also  in  some  sections  of  the  Christian 
church,  where  it  is  no  doubt  effective  in  many  cases  as  an  element 
of  external  worship. 

1033.  While  human  sacrifice  continued  to  a  comparatively  late 
period,  it  was  the  ordinary  sort  of  sacrifice  that  constituted  the 
main  part  of  the  ancient  religious  bond  of  society.4  In  the  course 
of  time  the  apparatus  of  sacrifice  was  elaborated  —  altars,  temples, 
priests  came  into  existence,  and  an  immense  organization  was  built 
up.  Sacrifices  played  a  part  in  all  the  affairs  of  life,  took  on  various 
special  shapes,  and  received  different  names.  They  were  all  placa- 
tory—  in  every  case  the  object  was  to  bring  men  into  friendly 
relations  with  the  god.  They  were  expiatory  when  they  were 
designed  to  secure  forgiveness  for  offenses,  whether  by  bloody  or 
by  unbloody  offerings,  or  by  anything  that  it  was  supposed  would 

1  Ellis,  Yoruba.  -§  106  ff. 

3  Alice  Fletcher,  Indian  Ceremonies  ;  Journal  of  American  Folklore,  vol.  iv  (1891  >, 
no.  15,  and  vol.  xvii  (1904),  no.  64  ;  Reports  of  the  Bureau  of Ethnology >,  vol.  xiv.  p.  701. 

-1  Cf.  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  Index,  s.v.  Sacrifice,  and  Westermarck,  Origin  and 
Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  Index,  s.v.  Sacrifice. 


492      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

secure  the  favor  of  the  deity.  They  were  performed  when  it  was 
desired  to  procure  some  special  benefit,  for  on  such  occasions  it 
was  necessary  that  the  deity  should  be  well  disposed  toward  the 
supplicant ;  such  supplicatory  or  impetratory  sacrifices  have  been 
among  the  most  common  —  they  touch  the  ordinary  interests  of 
life,  the  main  function  of  religious  exercises  in  ancient  times  being 
to  procure  blessings  for  the  worshiper.  These  blessings  secured, 
it  was  necessary  to  give  thanks  for  them  —  eucharistic  sacrifices 
formed  a  part  of  the  regular  worship  among  all  civilized  peoples. 
When  the  crops  came  in,  it  was  felt  to  be  proper  to  offer  a  portion, 
the  first  fruits,  to  the  deity,  as  among  the  Hebrews  and  many 
others,  and,  this  custom  once  established,  the  feeling  naturally 
arose  that  to  partake  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth  before  the  deity 
had  received  his  part  would  be  an  impious  proceeding  likely  to 
call  down  on  the  clan  or  tribe  the  wrath  of  the  god.  When  a  gift 
was  made  to  a  temple,  since  it  was  desirable  that  the  deity  should 
accept  it  in  a  friendly  spirit,  a  sacrifice  was  proper.  In  the  numer- 
ous cases  in  which  some  person  or  some  object  was  to  be  conse- 
crated to  the  deity  a  sacrifice  was  necessary  in  order  to  secure  his 
good  will ;  the  ordination  of  temple-ministers,  or  the  initiation  of 
the  young  into  the  tribe,  demanded  some  consecrative  sacrifice. 
And,  on  the  other  hand,  there  was  equal  necessity  for  a  sacrifice, 
a  deconsecrative  or  liberative  ceremony,  when  the  relation  of  con- 
secration was  to  be  terminated  (as  in  the  case  of  the  Hebrew 
Nazirite)  or  when  a  person  was  to  be  relieved  from  a  taboo  —  in 
this  latter  case  the  ceremony  of  cleansing  and  of  sacrificing  was 
intended  to  secure  the  approval  of  the  deity  in  whose  name  and 
in  whose  interest  the  taboo  had  been  imposed. 

1034.  Sacrifices  might  be  individual  or  communal,  occasional  or 
periodical.  The  early  organization  of  society  into  clans  made  the  com- 
munal sacrifice  the  more  prominent x  —  the  clan  was  the  social  unit, 
the  interests  of  the  individual  were  identical  with  those  of  the  clan, 
and  there  was  rarely  occasion  for  a  man  to  make  a  special  demand 
on  the  deity  for  his  individual  benefit.  Such  occasions  did,  however, 
arise,  and  there  was  no  difficulty  in  an  individual's  making  a  request 

1  Cf.  Wissowa,  Religion  der  R'dmcr,  p.  338  f. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  493 

of  the  tribal  god  provided  it  was  not  contrary  to  the  interests  of  the 
tribe.  If  the  petitioner  went  to  some  god  or  supernatural  Power 
other  than  the  tribal  god,  this  was  an  offense  against  tribal  life. 

1035.  The  great  communal  sacrifices  were  periodical.  They 
were  determined  by  great  turning-points  in  the  seasons  or  by  agri- 
cultural interests.  Sowing  time ;  when  the  crops  became  ripe  ; 
harvest  time ;  midsummer  and  midwinter  —  such  events  were 
naturally  occasions  for  the  common  approach  of  the  members  of 
the  tribe  to  the  tribal  deity.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  military 
expeditions,  which  were  held  to  be  of  high  importance  for  the  life 
of  the  tribe.  War  was,  as  W.  R.  Smith  calls  it,  a  "  holy  function,"  x 
and  its  success  was  supposed  (and  is  now  often  supposed)  to 
depend  on  the  supernatural  aid  of  the  deity.  The  particular 
method  of  conducting  the  ceremonies  in  such  cases  varied  with  the 
place  and  time,  but  the  purpose  of  the  worshiper  and  the  general 
methods  of  proceeding  are  the  same  among  all  peoples  and  at  all 
times.  Occasions  connected  with  the  individual,  such  as  birth, 
initiation,  marriage,  death,  and  burial,  are  also  affairs  of  the  family 
or  clan,  and  the  same  rule  applies  to  sacrifices  on  such  occasions 
as  to  the  great  communal  periodical  offerings. 

1036.  It  was  inevitable  that  the  ritual,  that  is,  the  specific  mode 
of  procedure,  should  receive  a  great  development  in  the  course  of 
history.  As  colleges  of  priests  were  established,  ceremonial  elabo- 
rateness would  become  natural,  and  precise  methods  of  proceeding 
would  be  handed  down  from  generation  to  generation.  Thus  in 
many  cases  the  worshiper  had  to  be  prepared  by  purificatory  and 
other  ceremonies,  and  the  priest  had  to  submit  to  certain  rules 
before  he  could  undertake  the  sacrifice.  The  victim  was  selected 
according  to  certain  prescriptions :  it  had  to  be  of  a  certain  age  or 
sex,  of  a  certain  color,  generally  free  from  impurities  and  defects, 
and  sometimes  it  was  necessary  that  it  should  show  itself  willing  to 
be  sacrificed.2   These  details  do  not  at  all  affect  the  essence  of  the 


1  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  p.  455. 

2  Lev.  i-iv,  viii,  xvi,  xxi ;  Numb,  xix  ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  197  ff. ;  Gard- 
ner and  Jevons,  Greek  Antiquities,  Index,  s.v.  Priests  and  Sacrifices;  Lippert,  Gc- 
sehiehtc  des  Pricsterthums. 


494     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

sacrifice.  They  are  all  the  result  of  the  ordinary  human  tendency 
to  organization,  to  precise  determination  of  particulars,  and  while 
certain  general  features  are  easily  understood  (those,  for  example, 
relating  to  the  perfectness  of  the  victim)  others  are  the  result  of 
considerations  which  are  unknown  to  us.  It  would  be  a  mistake 
to  seek  for  the  origin  of  sacrifice  in  such  ritualistic  details. 


Theories  of  the  Origin  of  Sacrifice 

1037.  Up  to  a  very  recent  time  the  institution  of  sacrifice  was 
generally  accepted  either  as  a  natural  human  custom,  due  to 
reverence  for  the  gods,  or  as  of  divine  prescription.  In  very  early 
documents,  as,  for  example,  in  the  Iliad  and  in  certain  parts  of  the 
Old  Testament,  it  is  assumed  that  the  material  of  sacrifice  is  the 
food  of  the  gods  —  a  fact  of  interest  in  the  discussion  of  the  origin 
of  sacrifice,  never,  however,  in  ancient  times  formulated  as  a 
theory.  In  the  Graeco-Roman  and  later  Jewish  periods  sacrifices 
seem  to  have  been  conceived  of  in  a  general  way  as  a  mark  of 
respect  to  the  deity  and  fell  more  and  more  into  disuse  as  the 
ethical  feeling  became  distincter.  In  the  New  Testament  there  is 
a  trace  of  the  view  that  the  victim  is  a  substitute  for  the  offerer : 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  it  is  said  that  the  blood  of  bulls  and 
goats  could  never  effect  the  remission  of  sin  — ■  a  nobler  victim  was 
necessary.1  A  similar  conception  is  found  in  the  later  Greek  and 
Roman  literature,  but  there  is  still  no  distinct  theory.  In  the  third 
century  of  our  era  Porphyry,  who  was  greatly  interested  in  religious 
matters  and,  doubtless,  represents  a  considerable  body  of  thought- 
ful current  opinion,  says  simply  that  sacrifices  are  offered  to  do 
honor  to  a  deity  or  to  give  thanks  or  to  procure  favors.2  The 
early  Christian  writers  make  no  attempt  to  explain  the  origin  of 
the  custom,  nor  do  we  find  any  such  attempt  in  the  European  phi- 
losophy of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  It  was  not 
until  the  spirit  of  historical  inquiry  had  entered  the  sphere  of  reli- 
gious investigation  that  the  question  as  to  the  historical  beginning 
and  the  significance  of  sacrifice  was  fairly  put. 

1  Heb.  x,  3.  2  De  Abstincntia,  ii,  24. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  495 

1038.  In  discussions  of  this  question  a  distinction  is  sometimes 
made  between  bloody  and  unbloody  offerings  —  they  are  supposed 
to  differ  in  placatory  or  expiatory  virtue,  and  one  or  the  other  of 
them  is  held  to  precede  in  order  of  time.  The  facts  seem,  how- 
ever, not  to  warrant  this  distinction.  Everywhere  the  two  sorts  of 
offering  have  equal  power  to  please  and  placate  the  deity ;  the 
special  prominence  that  may  be  given  to  the  one  or  the  other  is 
due  to  peculiar  social  conditions  that  do  not  affect  the  essential 
nature  of  the  rite.1  As  to  precedence  of  one  or  the  other  in  time 
the  available  data  offer  nothing  definite  beyond  the  fact  that  choice 
between  them  is  determined  by  the  circumstances  of  a  community 
—  the  material  of  an  offering  is  whatever  (food  or  other  thing) 
seems  natural  and  appropriate  in  a  particular  place  and  at  a  par- 
ticular time,  and  this  may  vary,  of  course,  in  the  same  community 
at  different  stages  of  culture. 

1039.  Current  theories  of  the  origin  and  significance  of  sacrifice 
divide  themselves  into  two  general  groups,  the  one  laying  stress 
on  the  idea  of  gift,  the  other  on  the  idea  of  union  with  the  deity. 
Doth  go  back  ultimately  to  the  same  conception,  the  conviction, 
namely,  that  man's  best  good  can  be  secured  only  by  the  help  of 
the  supernatural  Powers ;  but  they  approach  the  subject  from  dif- 
ferent points  of  view  and  differ  in  their  treatment  of  the  rationale 
of  the  ritual. 

1040.  The  conception  of  an  offering  as  a  gift  to  a  deity  is  found 
in  very  early  times  and  is  common  in  low  tribes.  In  Greece  the 
word  for  "  gift,"  as  offering,  occurs  from  Homer  on,  and  in  Latin 
is  frequent,  and  such  a  term  is  employed  in  Sanscrit.  The  common 
Hebrew  term  for  sacrifice  (minhd)  has  the  same  sense ;  it  is  used 
for  both  bloody  and  unbloody  offerings,  though  from  the  time  of 
Ezekiel  (sixth  century  p..c.)  onward  it  became  a  technical  term 
for  cereal  offerings.2  1  ne  details  of  savage  custom  are  given  by 
Tylor,3  who  proposes  as  the  scheme  of  chronological  development 
"  gift,  homage,  abnegation."  This  order,  which  is  doubtless  real, 
embodies  and  depends  on  growth  in  social  organization  and  in  the 

1  See  below,  §  1045  ff-  2  fien-  iv>  3j  I  :   fcv-  ">  a^- 

3  Primitive  Culture,  ii,  375  ff.  ;  cf.  Spencer,  Principles  of  Sociology,  i,  2S0  ff. 


496     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

consequent  growth  in  depth  and  refinement  of  religious  feeling. 
The  object  of  a  gift  is  to  procure  favor  and  protection  ;  homage 
involves  the  recognition  of  the  deity  as  overlord,  and,  in  the  higher 
stages  of  thought,  as  worthy  of  reverence  —  always,  however,  with 
the  sense  of  dependence  and  the  desire  for  benefits  ;  abnegation  is 
the  devotion  of  one's  possessions  and,  ultimately,  of  one's  self;  this 
idea  sometimes  assumes  a  low  form,  as  if  the  deity  were  pleased 
with  human  loss  and  suffering,  or  as  if  human  enjoyment  were 
antireligious,1  sometimes  approaches  the  conception  of  the  unity 
of  the  worshiper  with  the  object  of  worship.2 

1041.  A  special  form  of  the  gift-theory,  with  a  peculiar  coloring, 
is  that  which  holds  that  some  object  is  substituted  for  the  wor- 
shiper who  has  fallen  under  the  displeasure  of  the  deity  and  is  in 
danger  of  punishment.  This  conception,  however,  is  found  only 
in  the  most  advanced  religions.  The  cases  in  which  an  animal  is 
substituted  for  a  human  victim  3  are  of  a  different  character  — 
they  are  humane  reinterpretations  of  old  customs.  In  early  pop- 
ular religion  the  only  examples  of  a  deity's  deliberately  inflicting 
on  innocent  persons  the  punishment  of  another's  wrongdoing  are 
connected  with  the  old  conception  of  tribal  and  national  solidarity 
—  CEdipus,  Achan,  David,  and  others,  by  their  crimes,  bring  mis- 
fortune on  their  peoples ;  when  the  guilty  have  received  their 
punishment  the  innocent  are  relieved.  A  real  vicarious  suffering 
is  not  found  in  these  cases  or  in  any  ancient  sacrificial  ritual  —  the 
victim  is  not  supposed  to  bear  the  sin  of  the  sacrificant.4  It  is 
only  in  comparatively  late  theological  constructions  that  vicarious 
atonement  occurs.  Some  Jewish  thinkers  were  driven  to  such  a 
theory  by  the  problem  of  national  misfortune.  The  pious  and 
faithful  part  of  the  nation,  the  "  Servant  of  Yahweh,"  had  shared 
in  its  grievous  sufferings,  and,  as  the  faithful  did  not  deserve  this 
punishment,  the  conclusion  was  drawn  that  they  suffered  for  the 

1  So  often  in  ascetic  practices.         2  So,  for  example,  in  the  Imitatio  Christi. 

3  Euripides,  Iphigeneia  in  Aulis,  1581  ff.  (Iphigeneia)  ;  Gen.  xxii  (Isaac);  and 
similar  procedures  in  Hesiod,  T/ieogony,  535  ff. ;  Ovid,  Fasti,  iii,  339  £f. ;  Aitareya 
Brahmana,  ii,  8;   Qatapatha  Brahmana,  i,  2,  3,  5. 

4  The  expulsion  of  sin  or  evil  in  the  person  of  a  beast  or  a  human  being  is  a 
totally  different  conception.    See  above,  §  143. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  497 

iniquities  of  the  body  of  the  people ; x  their  suffering,  however, 
was  to  end  in  victory  and  prosperity.  In  this  conception  the  theory 
of  solidarity  is  obvious,  but  it  differs  from  the  old  tribal  theory  in 
that  the  suffering  of  the  innocent  brings  salvation  to  the  whole 
mass.  In  the  prophetic  picture  there  is  no  explanation  of  how 
this  result  was  to  be  brought  about  —  there  is  no  mention  of  a 
moral  influence  of  the  few  on  the  many  —  only  there  is  the  impli- 
cation that  the  nation,  taught  by  suffering,  would  in  future  be  faith- 
ful to  the  worship  of  the  national  deity.  It  does  not  appear  wherein 
the  ethical  and  religious  significance  of  the  unmerited  suffering  of 
the  pious  consisted ;  apparently  the  object  of  the  writer  is  merely 
to  account  for  this  suffering  and  to  encourage  his  countrymen.  In 
another  passage,2  suffering  is  represented  as  having  in  itself  expia- 
tory power ;  the  view  in  this  case  is  that  a  just  deity  must  punish 
sin,  forgives,  however,  when  the  punishment  has  been  borne. 

1042.  The  view  that  the  efficacy  of  sacrifice  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  it  brings  about  a  union  between  the  deity  and  the  ivorshiper  has 
been  construed  in  several  different  ways  according  as  the  stress  is 
laid  on  one  or  another  of  the  elements  of  the  rite.  One  theory 
represents  atonement,  the  reconciliation  of  god  and  man,  as  effected 
by  the  physical  act  of  sharing  the  flesh  of  a  sacred  animal ;  another 
finds  it  in  the  death  of  an  animal  made  sacred  and  converted  into 
an  intermediary  by  a  series  of  ceremonies  ;  a  third  holds  that  union 
with  the  divine  is  secured  by  whatever  is  pleasing  to  the  deity. 

1043.  Reconciliation  through  a  communal  meal.  Meals  in  which 
the  worshipers  partook  of  the  flesh  of  a  sacred  animal  (in  which 
sometimes  the  dead  animal  itself  shared)  have  probably  been  cele- 
brated from  an  immemorial  antiquity.  Examples  of  such  customs 
among  savages  are  given  above.3  A  familiar  instance  of  a  com- 
munal meal  in  civilized  society  is  the  Roman  festival  in  which  the 
shades  of  the  ancestors  of  the  clan  were  honored  (the  sacra  gentilicid) 
—  a  solemn  declaration  of  the  unity  of  the  clan-life.4  A  more  definite 


1  Isa.  liii.  2  iSa.  xl,  2.  3  cf.  §§  12S,  217  ff.,  1023. 

4  Other  examples  are  given  in  Fowler,  Roman  Festivals,  pp.  81  (shepherd  sacrifice), 
96  (Feriae  Latinae),  194  (at  the  temple  of  Hercules),  and  cf.  his  Religious  Experience 
of  the  Roman  People,  Index,  s.v.  Meals,  Sacrificial. 


498      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

act  of  social  communion  with  a  deity  seems  to  be  recognizable  in  the 
repasts  spread  in  connection  with  the  Eleusinian  mysteries,  which 
appear,  however,  to  have  been  merely  a  social  attachment  to  the 
mysteries  proper.1  In  the  feasts  of  the  Mithraic  initiates,  in  which 
mythological  symbolism  is  prominent,  a  more  spiritual  element 
becomes  visible :  the  participant  absorbs  something  of  the  nature 
of  the  god  —  power  to  overcome  evil,  with  hope  of  immortality.2 

1044.  In  the  ancient  records  of  these  ceremonies  there  is  no 
theory  of  the  means  by  which  man  comes  into  friendly  relations 
with  the  deity.  The  meal  is  an  act  of  friendly  intercourse  —  it 
doubtless  involves  the  ancient  belief  that  those  who  eat  together 
thus  absorb  a  common  life  and  are  bound  together  by  a  strong  tie. 
In  the  earliest  and  simplest  instances  the  feeling  apparently  is  that 
the  communion  is  between  the  human  participants  —  the  divine 
animal  is  honored  as  a  brother;  but,  even  when,  as  among  the 
Ainu,3  he  receives  a  part  of  the  food,  the  tie  that  binds  him  to  them 
rests  on  the  fact  of  original  kinship  rather  than  on  the  communal 
eating.  Later  the  view  that  the  god  was  pleased  and  placated  by 
the  nourishment  offered  him  assumed  more  definite  form  ; 4  but  it 
is  doubtful  whether  on  such  occasions  man  was  regarded  as  the 
guest  of  the  deity.5 

1045.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  the  effect  of  the  food  on  the 
god  that  has  been  made  by  W.  Robertson  wSmith  the  basis  of  an 
elaborate  theory  of  sacrifice ; 6  his  view  is  that  the  assimilation  of 
the  flesh  and  blood  of  the  kindred  divine  animal  strengthens  the 
deity's  sense  of  kinship  with  his  worshipers,  and  thus,  promoting 
a  kindly  feeling  in  him,  leads  him  to  pardon  men's  offenses  and 
grant  them  his  protection.    Smith's  argument  is  mainly  devoted  to 

1  Foucart,  Dcs  associations  rcligicnscs  chcz  les  Grecs.  For  the  I  sis  ceremony 
cf.  Apuleius,  Metamorphoses,  xi,  24  f. 

2  Cumont,  The  Mysteries  ol  Mithra  (Eng.  tr.),  p.  160.  On  the  magical  element 
in  mysteries  cf.  De  Jong,  Das  antike  Mysteriemvesen,  chap.  vi. 

3  See  above,  §  1024.  4  /Had,  i,  66  f. ;  Odyssey,  x,  518  ff. ;  Gen.  viii,  21. 

5  So  Wellhausen,  Prolegomena  to  the  History  of  Israel  (Eng.  tr.),  p.  62.  In  the 
Roman  sacra  gentilicia  it  was  rather  the  divinized  ancestors  who  were  the  guests  — 
they  were  entertained  by  the  living. 

6  In  his  article  "Sacrifice"  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica  (1SS6)  and  his  Religion 
of  the  Semites  (new  ed.,  1894). 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OE  RELIGION  499 

illustrating  the  ancient  conception  of  blood-kinship  between  gods, 
men,  and  beasts.  He  assumes  that  sacrifice  is  the  offering  of  food 
to  the  deity  (the  blood  of  the  animal,  as  the  seat  of  life,  coming 
naturally  to  be  the  most  important  part  of  the  offering),  the  sacred- 
ness  of  the  victim,  and  the  idea  of  communion,  and  further  that 
the  victim  is  a  totem  —  the  existence  of  totemism  in  the  Semitic 
area,  he  holds,  though  not  susceptible  of  rigid  proof,  is  made  prac- 
tically certain  by  the  wide  diffusion  of  the  totemic  conception 
elsewhere.1  As  evidence  that  the  effective  thing  in  sacrifice  is  the 
sharing  of  sacred  flesh  and  blood,  he  adduces  a  great  number  of 
offerings  (such  as  the  shedding  one's  own  blood  and  the  offering 
of  one's  hair)  in  which  there  is  no  death  of  a  victim,  and  no  idea 
of  penal  satisfaction  of  the  deity.  In  the  Israelite  ritual  he  lays 
special  stress  on  the  common  clan-sacrifice  (the  zebali)  in  which  a 
part  of  the  victim  is  given  to  the  god  and  a  part  is  consumed  by 
the  worshiper ;  this  he  contrasts  with  offerings  that  are  given 
wholly  to  the  god,  and,  leaving  aside  piacula  and  holocausts,  this 
distinction  he  makes  correspond  to  that  between  animal  and 
vegetable  offerings,  the  latter,  he  holds,  being  originally  not  con- 
ciliatory. Thus,  he  concludes,  the  expiatory  power  lies  in  the 
sharing  of  animal  flesh.  Here  the  theory  is  confronted  by  the 
holocaust  and  the  piaculum,  expiatory  sacrifices  in  which  there  is 
no  communal  eating.  Smith  meets  this  difficulty  by  suggesting 
that  these  two  sorts  of  sacrifice  belong  to  a  relatively  late  period, 
when,  in  the  progress  of  society,  the  original  conception  had  become 
dim.  As  time  went  on,  he  says,  the  belief  in  kinship  with  animals 
grew  fainter.  Sacrificial  meals  became  merely  occasions  of  feasting, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  establishment  of  kingly  government 
familiarized  men  with  the  idea  of  tribute  —  so  sacrifice  came  to  be 
regarded  as  a  gift  and  the  victim  was  wholly  burnt  (holocaust) ; 
the  same  result  was  reached  when  the  feeling  arose  that  the  victim 
was  too  sacred  to  be  eaten  —  it  must  be  otherwise  disposed  of 
(piaculum).   The  piacula  he  refers  to  times  of  special  distress,  when 

1  The  assumption  that  the  victim  is  a  totem  is  not  necessary  to  his  argument, 
which  rests  on  the  sacredness  (that  is,  the  divinity)  of  the  victim  — a  fact  univer- 
sally admitted. 


500     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

recourse  was  had  to  the  sacrifice  of  ancient  sacred  animals,  old 
totems  (Hebrew :  "  unclean  "  animals),  supposed  to  have  special 
potency.1  It  is  true  that  in  the  course  of  time  certain  old  concep- 
tions grew  dim,  but  this  does  not  set  aside  the  fact  that  expiatory 
power  was  supposed  to  attach  to  animal  sacrifices  in  which  there 
was  no  communal  eating;  though  some  of  these  were  late,  they 
doubtless  retained  the  old  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  efficacy  of 
sacrifice. 

1046.  In  Smith's  theory  there  is  confusion  between  the  two 
ideas  of  communion  and  expiation  or  placation.  All  the  facts  ad- 
duced by  him  go  to  show  only  that  the  earliest  form  of  animal 
sacrifice  took  the  form  of  communal  eating ;  and  in  such  repasts, 
as  in  the  savage  feasts  on  the  bodies  of  warriors  and  others,  the 
prominent  consideration  seems  to  have  been  the  assimilation  of 
the  qualities  of  the  thing  consumed  —  in  this  case  a  divine  animal. 
There  is  not  a  word  of  proof  of  the  view  that  the  placation  of  the 
deity  was  due  to  his  assimilation  of  kindred  flesh  and  blood.  Such 
a  view  is  not  expressed  in  any  ancient  document  or  tradition,  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  placation  by  gifts  of  food  (animal  or  vegetable) 
and  other  things  appears  in  all  accounts  of  early  ritual.  Even  in 
the  sacramental  meals  of  later  times,  Eleusinian,  Christian,  and 
Mithraic,  there  is  no  trace  of  the  theory  under  consideration.  In 
the  "Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles"  (ix  f.)  the  conception  of 
the  eucharistic  meal  is  simply  symbolical.  The  origin  of  the 
Australian  custom  2  (in  which  the  food  brought  in  by  a  clan  is  not 
eaten  till  the  old  men  have  first  tasted  it)  is  obscure ;  but  there  is 
no  hint  that  the  food  was  supposed  to  be  shared  by  a  supernatural 
being.3  Piacula  arose  under  the  influence  of  a  deep  sense  of  indi- 
vidual relation  to  the  deity,  and  sometimes  in  connection  with 
voluntary  associations  in  which  a  special  sanctity  was  held  to 
accrue  to  the  initiates  through  the  medium  of  a  cult  in  which 
special  sacrifices  were  prominent.    It  was  natural  that  peculiarly 

1  Isa.  lxv,  lxvi. 

2  Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia  ;  id.,  Native  Tribes 
of  Northern  Australia. 

3  On  this  point  and  on  Smith's  theory  in  general  see  the  exposition  of  the  theory 
by  Jevons,  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion,  chap.  xii. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  501 

solemn  or  dreadful  offerings  should  be  made  to  the  deity  in  times 
of  great  distress ;  the  placating  efficacy  in  such  cases  seems  to 
have  been  due  to  the  pleasure  taken  by  the  deity  in  the  proof  of 
devotion  given  by  the  worshipers.  In  general,  the  communal  meal 
lost  its  early  significance  as  time  went  on,  and  came  at  last  to  be 
celebrated  merely  as  a  traditional  mark  of  respect  to  the  deity,  or 
as  a  social  function  ;  the  belief  in  its  efficacy,  however  (and  some- 
times belief  in  its  magical  power),  survived  into  a  relatively  late 
period. 

1047.  In  one  point,  the  death  of  the  god,  J.  G.  Frazer,  while 
accepting  Smith's  theory  in  general,  diverges  from  his  view. 
Smith  regards  the  death  of  the  god  as  having  been  originally  the 
sacrificial  death  of  the  divine  totem  animal,  with  which  later  the 
god  was  identified.  Frazer  x  (here  following  Mannhardt  *2)  finds  its 
origin  in  the  death  of  the  vegetation-spirit  (the  decay  of  vegetation), 
which  was  and  is  celebrated  in  many  places  in  Europe,  and  fur- 
nishes an  explanation  of  the  myths  of  Adonis,  Attis,  Osiris,  Diony- 
sus, Demeter  and  Proserpine,  and  Lityerses.  This  explanation  is 
adopted  and  expanded  by  Hubert  and  Mauss.3  So  far  as  the 
mere  fact  of  the  sacrifice  of  a  divine  being  is  concerned  it  might 
be  accounted  for  by  either  of  these  theories ;  but  the  numerous 
points  of  connection  between  the  deities  in  question  and  the  an- 
cient ideas  concerning  the  death  of  vegetation  make  the  view  of 
Mannhardt  and  Frazer  the  more  probable.  The  kernel  of  the 
original  custom  is  not  expiation  but  celebration  or  worship ;  the 
myths  are  dramatic  developments  of  the  simple  old  idea.  Frazer 
suggests  that  the  spirit  or  god,  supposed  to  be  enfeebled  by  age, 
was  slain  by  the  worshipers  in  order  that  a  more  vigorous  successor 
might  infuse  new  life  into  the  world  —  an  explanation  that  is 
possible  but  cannot  be  considered  as  established  or  as  probable.4 
However  this  may  be,  it  was  at  a  relatively  late  period  that  the 
conception  of  communion  was  introduced  into  ceremonies  con- 
nected with  the  death  of  a  deity.    Originally  the  grain,  identified 

1  The  Dying  God  (part  iii  of  3d  ed.  of  The  Golden  Bough). 

2  Wald-  und  Feldkulte,  2d  ed.;  ii,  273  ff .  3  L'annee  sociologique,  ii,  115  ff. 
4  Frazer,  The  Dying  God,  chap,  ii,  §  2. 


5<D2      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

with  the  god,  was  eaten  in  order  to  acquire  his  strength ; 1  such 
seems  to  be  the  purpose  in  the  Mexican  ceremonies  in  which  paste 
images  of  the  deity  were  eaten  by  all  the  people.  With  the  growth 
of  moral  and  spiritual  conceptions  of  worship  such  communal 
eating  came  naturally  to  be  connected  with  a  sense  of  union  of 
soul  with  the  deity,  as  we  find  in  the  higher  religions,  but  still  with- 
out the  feeling  that  reconciliation  and  unity  were  effected  through 
the  absorption,  by  god  and  man,  of  the  same  sacred  food. 

1048.  In  some  forms  of  Christianity  the  sacramental  eating  is 
brought  into  connection  with  the  atoning  death  of  a  divine  person, 
but  this  latter  conception  came  independently  by  a  different  line  of 
thought.  Its  basis  is  the  idea  of  redemption,  which  is  an  element 
in  all  sacrifice  proper.  And,  as  the  death  of  the  divine  victim  is 
held  to  rescue  the  worshiper  from  punishment  for  ill  doing,  the 
conclusion  is  natural  that  the  former  stands  in  the  place  of  the 
latter.  In  the  higher  forms  of  thought  such  substitution  could  only 
be  voluntary  on  the  part  of  the  victim.  Traces  of  the  self-sacrifice 
of  a  god  have  been  sought  in  such  myths  as  the  stories  of  the 
self-immolation  of  Dido  and  Odin ;  but  the  form  and  origin  of 
these  myths  are  obscure  2  —  all  that  can  be  said  of  them  in  this 
connection  is  that  they  seem  not  to  contain  expiatory  conceptions.3 
The  higher  conception  of  a  divine  self-sacrifice  is  a  late  historical 
development  under  the  influence  of  convictions  of  the  moral  majesty 
of  God  and  the  sinfulness  of  sin. 

1049.  Union  with  the  divine  through  a  sanctified  victim.  The 
conception  of  sacrifice  as  bringing  about  a  union  of  the  divine  and 
the  human  is  reached  in  a  different  way  from  that  of  Smith  by 
MM.  Hubert  and  Mauss,  and  receives  in  their  hands  a  peculiar 
coloring.4  They  hold  that  the  numerous  forms  of  sacrifice  cannot 
be  reduced  to  "  the  unity  of  a  single  arbitrarily  chosen  principle  "  ; 
and  in  view  of  the  paucity  of  accurate  accounts  of  early  ritual  (in 

1  Cf  Frazer.  Adonis  Attis  Osiris  (part  iv  of  3d  ed.  of  The  Golden  Bough)  ;  2d  ed. 
of  The  Golden  Bough,  ii,  365  f. 

2  Article  "  Dido  "  in  Roscher's  Lexikon  ;  Saussaye,  Religion  of  the  Teutons,  p.  231. 

3  For  the  view  that  Odin's  self-sacrifice  is  merely  an  imitation  of  the  reception 
into  the  Odin-cult  see  Meyer,  Altgermanisthe  Rcligionsgcsehichte,  p.  241. 

4  Dannie  sociologiquc,  ii. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  503 

which  they  include  the  Greek  and  the  Roman)  they  reject  the 
"genealogical"  (that  is,  the  evolutionary)  method,  and  devote  them- 
selves' to  an  analysis  of  the  two  ancient  rituals,  the  Hindu  and  the 
Hebrew,  that  are  known  in  detail  and  with  exactness.  They  thus 
arrive  at  the  formula :  "  Sacrifice  is  a  religious  act  which,  by  the 
consecration  of  a  victim,  modifies  the  state  of  the  moral  person 
who  performs  it,  or  of  certain  objects  in  which  this  person  is  in- 
terested/"' The  procedure  in  sacrifice,  they  say,  consists  in  estab- 
lishing a  communication  between  the  sacred  world  and  the  profane 
world  by  the  intermediation  of  a  victim,  that  is,  of  a  thing  that  is 
destroyed  in  the  course  of  the  ceremony ;  it  thus  serves  a  variety 
of  purposes,  and  is  dealt  with  in  many  ways :  the  flesh  is  offered 
to  hostile  spirits  or  to  friendly  deities,  and  is  eaten  in  part  by  wor- 
shipers or  by  priests ;  the  ceremony  is  employed  in  imprecations, 
divination,  vows,  and  is  redemptive  by  the  substitution  of  the  vic- 
tim for  the  offender ;  the  soul  of  the  beast  is  sent  to  join  its  kin 
in  heaven  and  maintain  the  perpetuity  of  its  race ;  all  sacrifices 
produce  either  sacralization  or  desacralization  —  both  offerer  and 
victim  must  be  prepared  (for  the  victim  is  not,  as  Smith  holds, 
sacred  by  nature,  but  is  made  sacred  by  the  sacrifice),  and,  the 
ceremony  over,  the  person  must  be  freed  from  his  sanctity  (as 
in  the  removal  of  a  taboo) ;  all  sacrifice  is  an  act  of  abnegation, 
but  the  abnegation  is  useful  and  egoistic,  except  in  the  case  of  the 
sacrifice  of  a  god. 

1050.  The  essay  of  MM.  Hubert  and  Mauss  is  rather  a  de- 
scription of  the  mode  of  procedure  in  Hindu  sacrifice  than  an 
explanation  of  the  source  of  its  power.  A  victim,  it  is  said,  sanc- 
tified by  the  act  of  sacrifice,  effects  communication  between  the 
two  worlds,  but  we  are  not  told  wherein  consists  this  sanctifying 
and  harmonizing  efficacy.  The  rituals  chosen  for  analysis  are  the 
product  of  many  centuries  of  development  and  embody  the  con- 
ceptions of  theological  reflection  ;  it  does  not  appear  why  they 
should  be  preferred,  as  sources  of  information  concerning  the 
essential  nature  of  sacrifice,  to  the  simple  rites  of  undeveloped 
communities.  The  authors  of  the  essay,  though  they  deny  the 
possibility  of  finding  a  single  explicative  principle  chosen  arbitrarily, 


504     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

themselves  announce  a  principle,  which,  however,  amounts  simply 
to  the  statement  that  sacrifice  is  placatory.  In  thus  ascribing  the 
virtue  of  the  ceremony  to  the  act  itself  it  is  possible  that  they  may 
have  been  influenced  by  the  Brahmanic  conception  that  sacrifice 
had  power  in  itself  to 'control  the  gods  and  to  secure  all  blessings 
for  men ;  it  was  credited  by  them  with  magical  efficacy,  and  the 
efficacy  depended  on  performing  the  act  with  minutest  accuracy 
in  details  —  the  slightest  error  in  a  word  might  vitiate  the  whole 
proceeding.1  The  developed  Hindu  system  thus  embodied  in  learned 
form  the  magical  idea  that  is  found  in  many  early  procedures,  and 
in  some  other  cults  of  civilized  communities.  So  far  as  regards  the 
variety  of  functions  assigned  by  MM.  Hubert  and  Mauss  to  sacri- 
fice, they  may  all  be  explained  as  efforts  to  propitiate  supernatural 
Powers ;  and  the  obligation  on  priests  and  worshipers  to  purify 
themselves  by  ablutions  and  otherwise  arises  from  a  sense  of  the 
sacredness  of  the  sacrificial  act,  which  is  itself  derived  from  the 
feeling  that  the  sacredness  of  supernatural  beings  communicates 
itself  to  whatever  is  connected  with  them.  The  view  that  the  vic- 
tim is  not  in  itself  sacred  is  contradicted  by  all  the  phenomena  of 
early  religion.  Though  the  essay  of  MM.  Hubert  and  Mauss  for- 
mulates no  definition  of  the  ultimate  efficient  cause  in  sacrifice, 
passing  remarks  appear  to  indicate  that  they  look  on  the  offering 
as  a  gift  to  superhuman  Powers,  and  that  their  object  is  to  show 
under  what  conditions  and  circumstances  it  is  to  be  presented. 

1051.  Sacrifice  as  the  expression  of  desire  for  anion  with  the 
Infinite.  Professor  C.  P.  Tiele,  dissatisfied  with  existing  theories 
of  the  significance  of  sacrifice,  contents  himself  with  a  general 
statement.2  After  pointing  out  that  the  material  of  sacrifice  in 
any  community  is  derived  from  the  food  of  the  community,  he 
passes  in  review  briefly  the  theories  of  Tylor  (gifts  to  deities), 
Spencer  (veneration  of  deceased  ancestors),  and  Robertson  Smith  ; 
all  these,  though  he  thinks  it  would  be  presumptuous  to  condemn 
them  hastily,  he  finds  insufficient,  most  of  them,  he  says,  confining 

1  Yajnr-Vcda,  passim;  (^atapatha  Brahmana,  i,  3,  6,  8  ;  ii,  6,  2;  Hopkins,  Reli- 
gions of  India,  p.  188  al. ;  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  pp.  31  ff.,  215. 

2  Elements  of  the  Science  of  Religion  (Gifford  Lectures),  ii,  144  ff. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  505 

themselves  to  a  single  kind  of  offering,  whereas  every  kind  should 
be  taken  into  account,  gifts  presented,  objects  and  persons  con- 
secrated, victims  slain  with  or  without  repasts,  possessions  and 
pleasures  renounced,  acts  of  fasting  and  abstinence,  every  kind 
of  religious  self-denial  or  self-sacrifice.  The  question  being  whether 
one  and  the  same  religious  need  is  to  be  recognized  in  all  the  varie- 
ties, he  finds  the  root  of  sacrificial  observances  in  the  yearning  of 
the  believer  for  abiding  communion  with  the  supernatural  Power 
to  which  he  feels  himself  akin,  the  longing  of  finite  man  to  become 
one  with  the  Infinity  above  him. 

1052.  Tiele  here  has  in  mind  the  highest  form  of  the  religious 
consciousness,  which  he  carries  back  to  the  beginnings  of  religious 
thought.  He  is  justified  in  so  doing  in  so  far  as  all  later  develop- 
ments must  be  supposed  to  exist  in  germinal  form  at  the  outset  of 
rational  life  ;  but  such  a  conception  tells  us  nothing  of  the  historical 
origin  of  customs.  The  idea  of  the  relation  between  the  finite  and 
the  infinite  is  not  recognizable  in  early  thought ;  to  trace  the  history 
of  such  an  institution  as  sacrifice  we  desire  to  know  in  what  sort 
of  feeling  it  originated,  and  we  may  then  follow  its  progress  to  its 
highest  definition.  All  the  details  mentioned  by  Tiele  are  included 
under  the  head  of  gift  except  acts  of  abstinence  and  self-sacrifice, 
and  these  last  belong  properly  not  to  what  is  technically  known  as 
"  sacrifice,"  but  to  man's  endeavor  to  bring  himself  into  ethical 
harmony  with  an  ethical  deity.  With  equal  right  prayer  and  all 
moral  conduct  might  here  be  included  ;  Tiele  thinks  of  "  sacrifice  " 
as  embracing  the  whole  religious  life.  In  the  earliest  known  cults 
the  "  yearning  for  union  with  the  Infinite  "  takes  the  form  of  de- 
sire to  enter  into  friendly  relations  with  superhuman  Powers  by 
gifts,  in  order  to  derive  benefit  from  them  ;  when  old  forms  have 
been  outgrown  the  conviction  arises  that  what  is  well-pleasing  to 
God  is  the  presentation  of  the  whole  self,  as  a  "  living  sacrifice," 
in  service  in  accordance  with  reason  (Rom.  xii,  1). 

1053.  The  various  theories  of  the  origin  and  efficacy  of  sacrifice 
(omitting  the  ambassadorial  conception)  arc  thus  reducible  to  three 
types:  it  is  regarded  as  a  gift,  as  a  substitution,  or  as  an  act 
securing  union  (physical  or  spiritual)  with  the  divine.    These  have 


$06     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

all  maintained  themselves,  in  one  form  or  another,  up  to  the  present 
day.  The  old  ritual  slaughter  of  an  animal  and  the  presentation 
of  vegetables  and  other  things  have,  indeed,  vanished.  The  move- 
ment of  thought  against  animal  sacrifice  began  in  the  Western 
world  (among  the  Greeks  and  the  Hebrews)  probably  as  early  as 
the  fourth  century  B.C.1  In  Greece  the  formulation  of  philosophic 
thought  and  the  rise  of  individualism  in  religion  (embodied,  for  ex- 
ample, in  the  great  Mysteries)  brought  larger  and  more  spiritual 
ideas  into  prominence.  Rational  law  and  inward  impulse  took  the 
place,  in  the  higher  circles,  of  ritual  offerings.  The  object  of  law, 
says  Plato,  is  the  encouragement  of  virtue  of  all  kinds  and  the 
securing  of  the  highest  happiness ;  but,  he  holds,  there  is  some- 
thing higher  than  law  :  the  good  Athenian  is  above  other  men, 
for  he  is  the  only  man  who  is  freely  and  genuinely  good  by  inspi- 
ration of  nature,  and  is  not  manufactured  by  law.2  The  Mysteries 
assumed  that  every  man,  with  suitable  inward  preparation,  was 
fitted  to  enter  into  a  spiritual  union  with  the  deity.  The  later  Jews 
showed  equal  devotion  to  their  law,  held  to  be  divinely  given,  laying 
the  stress  on  the  moral  side;3  jurists  became  more  important  than 
priests,  and  the  synagogue  (representing  individual  worship)  more 
influential  than  the  temple-ritual.  In  certain  psalms4  sacrifice  is 
flatly  declared  not  to  be  acceptable  to  God ;  this  attitude  had  been 
taken  by  the  earlier  prophets,5  but  is  emphasized  in  the  psalms  in 
the  face  of  the  later  opinion  that  the  sacrificial  ritual  was  of  divine 
ordination  (so  in  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers).  In  the  Gospels 
the  sacrificial  ritual  is  practically  ignored.  In  India  the  Brahmanic 
and  Buddhistic  movements  toward  rational  conceptions  of  religion 
showed  themselves  as  early  as  the  sixth  century  B.C.  Thus,  over 
a  great  part  of  the  civilized  world  intellectual  and  moral  progress 
took  the  form  of  protest  against  the  old  idea  of  sacrifice. 

1054.  Vet  old  customs  are  long-lived,  and  the  ancient  theories, 
as  is  remarked  above,  still  have  a  certain  power.  The  crudest  of 
them  —  that  the  deity  may  be  propitiated  by  gifts  —  shows  itself 

1  Plato  {Laws,  iii,  716)  says  that  a  bad  man  gets  no  benefit  from  sacrifice. 

2  Laws,  i,  631,  642  3  ps.  xix,  7  ff. ;  cxix.  4  ps.  x],  7;  1,  S-15  ;  li,  iS  f.,  al. 
5  Amos,  v,  21  ff. ;  Isa.  i,  1 1  ff . ;  Mic.  vi,  6  ff. ;  Jer.  vii,  21  ff. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  507 

in  the  belief  that  ill-doing  may  be  atoned  for  by  the  support  of 
charitable  and  religious  institutions  —  by  the  building  of  churches 
and  hospitals,  by  the  maintenance  of  religious  worship,  and  by  aid 
to  the  poor.  Society  has  benefited  largely  by  this  belief,  especially 
in  medieval  Europe  and  to  some  extent  in  Buddhistic  and  Moslem 
communities ;  it  has  formed  a  transition  to  higher  conceptions,  by 
which  it  has  now  been  in  great  measure  replaced.  The  same  thing 
is  true  of  ascetic  observances.  The  idea  of  sacrificial  substitution, 
which  has  been  prominent  in  organized  Christianity  from  an  early 
period  (though  it  has  no  support  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus),  might 
seem  to  be  prejudicial  to  religion  for  the  reason  that  it  tends  to 
depress  the  sense  of  individual  responsibility  by  relegating  the 
reconciliation  with  the  deity  to  an  external  agency  —  and  such  has 
often  been  its  effect ;  but  this  unhappy  result  has  been  more  and 
more  modified,  partly  by  the  natural  human  instinct  of  moral  re- 
sponsibility and  the  ethical  standard  of  the  Christian  Scriptures, 
partly  by  the  feeling  of  gratitude  and  devotion  that  has  been  called 
forth  by  the  recognition  of  unmerited  blessing.  The  third  theory 
of  sacrifice,  according  to  which  its  essence  is  union  with  the  divine, 
has  passed  gradually  from  the  sphere  of  ritual  to  that  of  moral 
culture.  In  mystical  systems,  Christian  and  Moslem,  it  has  lent 
itself  sometimes  to  immorality,  sometimes  to  a  stagnant,  egoistic, 
and  antisocial  quietism  ;  but  in  the  main  it  has  tended  to  avoid 
or  abandon  mechanical  and  mystical  features,  and  confine  itself 
to  the  conception  of  sympathetic  and  intelligent  cooperation  with 
what  may  be  regarded  as  the  divine  activities  of  the  world. 

1055.  Further  external  apparatus  of  religion.  Along  with  the 
growth  of  sacrifice  there  has  been  a  natural  development  of  every- 
thing that  was  necessary  to  give  permanent  form  to  public  worship 

ritual,  priests,  temples,  idols,  and  whatever  was  connected  with 

the  later  church  organizations. 

Ritual 

Apart  from  magical  procedures  the  earliest  known  public  reli- 
gious worship  consisted  simply  in  the  offering  of  an  animal,  a 
vegetable,  a  fluid,  or  other  object  to  a  superhuman  being,  the 


508     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

offering  being  performed  by  any  prominent  person  and  without 
elaborate  ceremonies.  Inevitably,  however,  as  the  social  organi- 
zation grew  more  complex  and  the  conception  of  sanctity  more 
definite,  the  ceremonial  procedure  became  more  elaborate.  The 
selection  and  the  handling  of  the  victim  came  to  be  objects  of  anx- 
ious care,  and  the  details  increased  in  importance  as  they  increased 
in  number.  It  was  believed  that  minute  accuracy  in  every  ritual 
act  was  necessary  for  the  success  of  the  offering.  Various  elements 
doubtless  entered  into  this  belief :  often  a  magical  power  was  at- 
tributed to  the  act  of  sacrifice ;  and  there  was  a  feeling,  it  may  be 
surmised,  that  the  deity  was  exacting  in  the  matter  of  ceremonies 
—  these  were  marks  of  respect,  such  as  was  paid  to  human  poten- 
tates, and  well-defined  court  rituals  (on  which  the  religious  ritual 
was  probably  based)  appear  in  early  forms  of  society.  Thus  ritual 
tended  to  become  the  predominant  element  in  worship,  serving  first 
the  interests  of  unity  and  order  in  religion,  and  later  always  in  dan- 
ger of  becoming  a  mechanical  and  religiously  degrading  influence. 
1056.  In  most  savage  and  half-civilized  communities  sacrifice 
is  a  simple  affair,  and  the  details  of  the  ceremonies  of  worship 
are  rarely  reported  by  travelers  and  other  observers.1  An  exception 
exists  in  the  case  of  the  Todas  of  Southern  India,  who  have  elab- 
orate ceremonies  connected  with  the  milking  of  buffaloes.2  The 
ordinary  buffaloes  of  a  village  are  cared  for  by  some  prominent 
man  (never  by  a  woman),  who  is  sometimes  a  sacred  person  and 
while  carrying  on  his  operations  performs  devotional  acts  (prayer 
and  so  forth),  but  without  a  fixed  ritual.  A  higher  degree  of  sanc- 
tity attaches  to  the  institution  called  ti,  which  comprises  a  herd  of 
buffaloes  belonging  to  a  clan  and  provided  with  dairies  and  graz- 
ing-grounds ;  each  dairy  has  appropriate  buildings,  and  the  ti  is 
presided  over  by  a  sort  of  priest  called  a  palol.  The  migration  of 
the  buffaloes  from  one  grazing-ground  to  another  is  conducted  as 
a  sacred  function.    In  the  case  of  an  ordinary  herd  the  procession 

1  See  Ellis,  Ewe  (Dahomi),  Tshi  (Ashanti),  Yoruba;  Miss  Kingsley,  Travels; 
Codrington,  The  Melanesians ;  Turner,  Samoa ;  articles  "  Andeans,"  "  Bantu," 
''  Bengal,"  "  Brazil,"  al.,  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  Rivers,  The  Todas,  chaps,  vi,  xi,  xiii. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  509 

of  animals  is  accompanied  by  a  religious  official  who  carries  the 
dairy  implements  ;  on  reaching  the  destination  the  new  dairy  is  puri- 
fied, the  sun  is  saluted,  and  prayer  is  offered.  In  a  ti  migration  the 
procedure  is  more  elaborate  :  the  milking  of  the  buffaloes  is  accom- 
panied by  prayers  for  the  older  and  the  younger  members  of  the 
herd,  and  every  act  of  the  palol  is  regulated  by  law.  The  same  thing 
is  true  of  the  animal  sacrifices  :  the  slaughter  of  the  victim  and 
the  disposal  of  the  various  parts  are  accomplished  in  accordance 
with  definite  rules  that  are  handed  down  orally  from  one  generation 
to  another.  The  Todas  are  a  non-Aryan  people,  hardly  to  be  called 
half -civilized :  if  the  buffalo-ritual  is  native  with  them,  the  natural 
inference  will  be  that  the  custom  is  ancient.  Rivers  adduces  a  con- 
siderable number  of  similarities  between  Toda  institutions  and  those 
of  the  Malabar  coast  (such  as  polyandry  and  other  marriage  institu- 
tions), and  this  agreement,  as  far  as  it  goes,  may  point  to  a  common 
culture  throughout  a  part  of  Southern  India ; x  the  early  history  of 
these  tribes  is,  however,  obscure.  It  is  possible  that  the  Todas  have 
borrowed  some  customs  from  the  Hindus.  They  have  certainly 
adopted  some  Hindu  gods,  and  Rivers  suspects  Hindu  influence 
in  their  recognition  of  omens  and  lucky  and  unlucky  days,  in  cer- 
tain of  their  magical  procedures,  and  in  their  use  of  pigments  and 
ashes  in  some  sacred  ceremonies.  There  seems,  however,  to  be  no 
proof  that  the  buffalo-ritual  has  been  borrowed  from  the  Hindus. 
On  this  question,  which  is  of  importance  as  bearing  on  the  early  his- 
tory of  ritual,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  further  information  will  be  got. 
1057.  Various  nonsacrificial  rituals  (dances  and  so  forth)  are 
referred  to  above.2  Magical  processes  should  be  here  included  so 
far  as  they  involve  a  recognition  of  superhuman  agents ;  they  are 
then  to  be  regarded  as  religious.  Definite  magical  ritual  is  found 
in  many  of  the  lower  tribes,  and  there  are  ceremonies  in  which  a 
shaman  is  the  conductor  —  these  are  governed  by  fixed  customs 
as  to  dress,  posture,  acts,  and  words.3    They  differ  from  magical 


1  Cf.  also  Crooke's  Popular  Religion  and  Folklore  of  Northern  India,  in  which 
similar  customs  are  mentioned.  2  Chapter  iii. 

3  Dixon,  The  Northern  Maidu  and  The  Shasta.  For  Korea  see  H.  G.  Under- 
wood, Religions  of  Eastern  Asia, 


510     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIOXS 

processes  in  that  they  are  assemblies  of  the  people,  religious  be- 
cause there  is  communication  with  spirits.  In  the  Californian  tribes 
and  others  they  become  occasions  of  merrymaking ;  a  peculiar  fea- 
ture of  these  gatherings  among  the  Maidu  and  other  tribes  is  the 
presence  of  a  clown  who  mimics  the  acts  and  words  of  the  dancers 
and  performs  knavish  tricks ;  the  origin  of  this  feature  of  the 
dances  is  not  clear.  In  all  such  ceremonies  the  tendency  to  regu- 
late the  details  of  religious  performances  is  apparent,  and  such 
regulation  is  found  in  so  many  parts  of  the  world  that  it  may  be 
regarded  with  probability  as  universal. 

1058.  For  the  ancient  national  religions  we  have  the  fullest 
details  in  the  case  of  the  Hindus  and  the  Hebrews.  The  Hindu 
sacrificial  ritual  is  described  by  MM.  Hubert  and  Mauss ;  *  the 
Hebrew  procedure  is  given  in  the  later  sections  of  the  Pentateuch.2 
The  Egyptian  ritual  also  appears  to  have  been  elaborate,  including 
much  music.3  These  show  methods  similar  to  those  described  above, 
and  probably  the  same  general  modes  of  procedure  were  followed 
in  Babylonia  and  Persia,  though  of  the  ritual  in  these  countries 
only  slight  notices  have  been  handed  down.4  The  great  Chinese 
Imperial  sacrifices  are  described  by  H.  Blodget.5 

1059.  These  national  systems  exhibit  a  gradual  quiet  enlarge- 
ment of  the  ritual  resulting  from  increasing  specialization  in  the 
conception  of  sin  and  forgiveness  and  in  the  functions  of  religious 
officials.  A  different  sort  of  development  appears  in  the  rites  of 
the  cults  that  sprang  up  on  the  ruins  of  the  old  faiths  —  Greek 
Mysteries,  Mithraism,  Isisism,  Christianity.  These  were  all  re- 
demptive religions,  highly  individualistic  and  intense,  efforts  to 
infuse  into  old  forms  the  ideas  concerning  moral  purity,  union 
with  the  deity,  immortality,  and  future  salvation  that  had  arisen 

1  Uannee  sociologiqne,  ii ;  see  above,  §  1049. 

2  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers.  A  single  early  detail  is  mentioned  in  1  Sam.  ii, 
13  ff.  For  the  later  Jewish  ceremonial  see  article  "  Sacrifice  "  in  Encyclopedia  Biblica. 

3  Mariette,  Abydos ;  Maspero,  Dawn  of  Civilization  (Eng.  tr.),  p.  121  ff. ;  Erman, 
Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion,  pp.  46-49,  122,  179  f.  (reports  of  Herodotus). 

4  For  Babylonia  see  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  Index,  s.v.  Rit- 
uals; for  Mazdean,  De  Harlez,  Avesia,  Introduction,  pp.  clxvi,  clxx. 

5  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  xx,  5S  ff. ;  cf.  De  Groot,  in  Saussaye, 
Lehrbuch  dcr  Rcligionsgeschichtc,  p.  60  ff. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  511 

in  the  Graeco-Roman  world  by  the  natural  growth  of  thought  and 
the  intermingling  of  the  various  existing  schemes  of  religious  life. 
They  are  all  marked  by  a  tendency  toward  elaborate  organization, 
a  sharp  differentiation  from  the  national  cults,  and  purificatory  and 
other  ceremonies  of  initiation.  The  differentiation  was  most  definite 
in  Christianity,  the  ritual  was  most  highly  developed  in  the  other 
movements.  In  the  Greek  public  Mysteries l  and  in  those  of 
Mithra2  there  were  (besides  ablutions)  the  old  communal  meals, 
processions,  striking  dramatic  performances,  and  brilliant  effects 
of  light  and  music,  and  in  Mithraism  trials  of  courage  for  the 
neophyte  after  the  manner  of  the  old  savage  initiations.  The 
ceremonies  in  the  Isis  cult  were  less  sensational,  more  quiet  and 
dignified.3  In  all  these  cults  there  was  symbolism,  and  the  moral 
teaching  was  of  a  lofty  character. 

1060.  Christian  ritual  was  at  first  simple,4  but  rapidly  grew  in 
elaborateness.  The  liturgy  and  the  eucharistic  ceremonies  were 
expanded  into  great  proportions,  and  came  to  be  the  essence  of 
worship.  This  movement  went  on  throughout  Christendom  (with 
variations  here  and  there)  up  to  the  rise  of  Protestantism,  and  after 
that  time  continued  in  the  Greek  and  Roman  Churches.  Protes- 
tantism, in  its  recoil  from  certain  doctrines  of  the  Church  of  Rome, 
threw  off  much  of  its  ceremonial,  which  in  the  minds  of  the  people 
was  associated  with  the  rejected  dogmas.  Since  the  separation,  how- 
ever, especially  in  the  last  hundred  years,  the  violent  antagonism  hav- 
ing largely  quieted  down,  there  has  been  in  some  Protestant  bodies 
a  slow  but  steady  movement  in  the  direction  of  ritualistic  expansion  ; 
procedures  that  three  centuries  ago  would  have  called  forth  earnest 
protest  are  now  accepted  and  interpreted  in  accordance  with  Protes- 
tant ideas.  Doubtless  the  temperament  of  a  people  has  something 
to  do  with  the  amount  of  ceremonial  it  favors  in  religious  service. 

1061.  The  history  of  ritual  thus  shows  that  it  tends  to  grow 
in  elaborateness  and   importance  as  social  forms   become   more 


1  Foucart,  Associations  religieuses  chez  les  Grecs;  Jcvons,  Introduction  to  History 
of  Religion,  chap,  xxiii ;  De  Jong,  Das  antike  Mysterienwesen,  p.  18  ff. 

2  Cumont,  Mysteries  of  Mithra.  3  Apuleius,  Metamorphoses,  chap.  xi. 

4  1  Cor.  xi,  20  ff. ;  xiv  (cf.  Acts  ii,  46)  ;   Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  chap,  ix  f. 


512     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

elaborate  and  important  —  the  mode  of  approaching  the  deity 
imitates  the  mode  of  approaching  human  dignitaries,  postures  are 
borrowed  from  current  etiquette.1  Form  was  especially  sought  after 
under  the  old  monarchies,  Egyptian  and  Assyrian.2  The  exagger- 
ated Oriental  court  etiquette,  introduced  into  Roman  life  as  early 
as  the  time  of  Diocletian,  was  maintained  and  developed  under  the 
Byzantine  emperors.3  These  usages  may  have  affected  the  growth 
of  the  Greek  and  Roman  Church  liturgies.4  In  modern  China, 
under  the  imperial  government,  divine  worship  was  substantially 
'identical  in  form  with  the  worship  of  the  emperor.  In  some  cases 
it  may  be  doubtful  in  which  direction  the  borrowing  has  been. 

The  expansion  of  liturgical  forms  has  often  been  accompanied 
by  the  effort  to  interpret  them  symbolically.  Intelligent  reflection 
has  led  to  the  conviction  that  forms  without  religious  meaning  are 
valueless,  and  it  has  been  easy,  after  ceremonies  were  established, 
to  attach  spiritual  definitions  to  their  details.  This  relieves  their  ma- 
terialism, and  gives  a  certain  realness  and  force  to  religious  feeling. 


Priests  5 

1062.  A  priest  is  a  person  commissioned  by  the  community  or 
its  head  to  conduct  the  sacrificial  service  and  related  services  con- 
nected with  shrines.  Such  a  person  differs  in  two  respects  from 
the  religious  official  of  the  simplest  times,  the  magician  (shaman, 
or  medicine  man) :  the  latter  acts  in  his  own  name  and  by  his  own 
authority,  and  the  methods  he  employs  are  magical  —  they  are 
based  on  the  belief  that  the  supernatural  Powers  are  subject  to 
law  and  may  be  controlled  by  one  who  knows  this  law ;  the  priest 

1  So,  for  instance,  postures  in  prayer,  such  as  kneeling,  bowing,  standing. 

2  The  Amarna  Letters;  Records  of  Ancic?it  Egypt,  ed.  Breasted;  cuneiform  in- 
scriptions.   The  Egyptian  king,  however,  was  regarded  as  divine. 

3  Gibbon,  chaps,  xiii  (Diocletian),  xl,  year  532  ;  cf.  descriptions  in  Scott's  Count 
Robeii  of  Paris. 

4  Daniel,  Codex  Liturgicus ;  articles  "  Liturgie  "  and  "  Messe  "  in  Herzog-Hauck, 
Real- Encyklop'd die  ;  articles  "  Liturgy  "  and  "  Liturgical  Books  "  in  Smith  and 
Cheatham,  Dictionary  of  Christian  Antiquities. 

5  Cf.  J.  Lippert,  Allgemeine  Geschichte  des  Priest crthums;  Westermarck,  Origin 
and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  Index,  s.v.  Priests. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  5  I  3 

acts  in  the  name  and  by  the  authority  of  the  community,  and  his 
methods  are  dictated  by  the  friendly  social  relation  existing  between 
the  community  and  the  Powers.  He  differs,  further,  from  those 
religious  ministrants  (chiefs  of  clans,  fathers  of  families,  and  other 
prominent  men)  who  acted  by  virtue  of  their  social  or  political 
positions  in  that  his  functions  are  solely  religious  and  are  in  that 
regard  distinct  from  his  civil  position.  He  represents  a  differenti- 
ation of  functions  in  an  orderly  nonmagical  religious  society.  Such 
an  office  can  arise  only  under  a  tolerably  well-organized  civil  gov- 
ernment and  a  fairly  well-defined  sacrificial  ritual.  It  is  doubtless 
a  slow  growth,  and  there  may  be,  in  a  community,  a  period  of 
transition  from  one  grade  of  religious  ministers  to  another  when 
the  distinction  between  the  priest  and  the  magician  or  between 
the  priest  and  the  headman  is  hardly  recognizable ;  the  distinction 
comes,  however,  to  be  well  marked,  and  then  indicates  an  impor- 
tant turning-point  in  religious  history.  It  may  be,  also,  that  at 
certain  times  under  certain  circumstances  the  civil  ruler  may  have 
priestly  functions  or  the  priest  may  exercise  civil  authority ;  but 
these  exceptional  cases  do  not  affect  the  specific  character  of  the 
sacerdotal  office. 

1063.  The  priest  is  a  sacred  person,  and  is  affected  by  all  the 
conditions  pertaining  to  the  conception  of  "  sacred/'  In  early 
times  he  has  to  be  guarded  against  contamination  by  impure  or 
common  (profane)  things,  and  care  has  to  be  taken  that  his  quality 
of  sacredness  be  not  injuriously  communicated  to  other  persons  or 
to  any  object.1  The  parts  of  his  person,  such  as  hair  and  nail- 
parings,  must  not  be  touched  by  common  folk.  The  dress  worn 
by  him  when  performing  his  sacred  duties  must  be  changed  when 
he  comes  out  to  mix  with  the  people.  He  must  keep  his  body 
clean,  and  the  food  that  he  may  or  may  not  eat  is  determined  by 
custom  or  by  law.  His  sexual  relations  are  defined — sometimes 
he  is  forbidden  to  marry  or  to  approach  a  woman,  sometimes  the 
prohibition  extends  only  to  marriage  with  a  certain  sort  of  woman 

1  On  priestly  taboos  see  Frazer,  Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  Index,  s.v. ;  these  are 
often  of  the  same  sort  as  royal  taboos.  See  above,  §  595  ff.  For  Hebrew  priestly 
taboos  see  Ezek.  xliv,  Lev.  xxi  f. 


514     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

(a  foreigner,  a  widow,  or  a  harlot).  In  some  cases  he  is  forbidden 
to  engage  in  warfare  or  to  shed  human  blood ; x  the  ground  of  this 
prohibition  was  physical,  not  moral.2 

1064.  Similar  rules  in  regard  to  food,  marriage,  chastity  applied 
to  priestesses.3  Women  were  often,  in  ancient  times,  the  minis- 
trants  in  the  shrines  of  female  deities  —  there  was  a  certain  pro- 
priety in  this  arrangement ;  they  were,  however,  in  some  cases 
attached  to  the  service  of  male  deities.4  Their  duties  were  in 
general  of  a  secondary  character :  they  rarely,  if  ever,  offered 
sacrifice ; 5  they  were  often  in  charge  of  the  temple-music ;  the 
function  of  soothsaying  or  of  the  interpretation  of  oracular  say- 
ings was  sometimes  assigned  them.  On  the  other  hand,  female 
ministrants  in  temples,  who  were  closely  connected  with  temple 
duties,  were  sometimes  considered  as  wives  of  the  god,  and  in 
some  cases  had  sexual  relations  with  priests  and  worshipers,  and 
became  public  prostitutes.6  This  custom  does  not  exist  among  the 
lowest  tribes,  and  it  attained  its  largest  development  in  some  of 
the  great  civilized  cults.  It  seems  not  to  have  existed  in  Egypt.7 
The  consecrated  maidens  described  in  the  Code  of  Hammurabi 
appear  to  have  been  chaste  and  respected  ; 8  the  relation  between 
these  and  the  harlots  of  the  early  Ishtar  cult  is  not  clear.  A  dis- 
tinction may  be  made  between  priestesses  proper  and  maidens 
(hierodules)  consecrated  to  such  a  deity  as  Aphrodite  Pandemos ; 
Solon's  erection  of  a  temple  to  this  goddess,  which  he  supplied 
with  women,  may  have  been  an  attempt  to  control  the  cult  of 
the  hetaerae.    The  thousand  hierodules  at  Corinth  9  were  probably 

1  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  i,  348,  381. 

2  Not  all  these  conditions  were  to  be  found  in  any  one  community. 

3  Westermarck,  op.  cit.,  ii,  406  ff.  4  Pausanias,  ii,  33,  3. 

5  For  a  possible  case  see  Wilkinson,  The  Ancient  Egyptians,  1st  ed.,i,  317. 

6  Ellis,  Ewe,  p.  141  ;  Ward,  History,  Literature  and  Religion  of  the  Hindoos,  ii,  134  ; 
Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  p.  660;  Hos.  iv,  14;  Deut.  xxiii,  17  f. 
(prohibition)  ;  Gen.  xxxviii,  14  ff. 

7  Erman,  Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion,  pp.  72,  221,  is  disposed  to  reject  the 
statement  of  Strabo  (xvii,  i,  46)  that  there  was  libertinage  at  Thebes.  Cf.  Wilkinson, 
The  Ancient  Egyptians,  Index,  s.v.  Priestesses. 

8  C.  H.  W.  Johns,  article  "Code  of  Hammurabi"  in  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible,  extra  volume;  D.  G.  Lyon,  "The  Consecrated  Women  of  the  Hammurabi  Code" 
in  Studies  in  the  History  of  Religions  presented  to  C,  H.  Toy.  9  Strabo,  p.  378. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  5  1  5 

not  priestesses,  and  the  same  thing  may  be  surmised  to  be  true  of 
the  women  devoted  to  the  Semitic  prototype  of  Aphrodite,  the 
Syrian  Ashtart  (Astarte),  and  to  the  Babylonian  Ishtar.1 

1065.  The  origin  of  temple  prostitution  is  not  clear.  In  many 
cases  (in  Greece,  Rome,  Mexico,  Peru,  and  elsewhere)  the  conse- 
crated women  were  required  to  be  virgins  and  to  remain  chaste  — 
this  higher  conception  is  obviously  the  natural  one  in  a  civilized 
community  in  which  the  purity  of  wives  and  daughters  is  strictly 
guarded.  The  old  idea  that  sexual  union  was  defiling  may  have 
originated  or  strengthened  the  demand  for  chastity.  The  institu- 
tion of  the  lower  class  of  women  does  not  seem  to  have  originated 
in  a  society  in  which  this  regard  for  purity  is  lacking,  for  the  hiero- 
dulic  class  is  rarely  if  ever  found  in  existing  societies  of  this  sort. 
The  origin  of  the  class  is  not  to  be  sought  in  a  low  valuation  of 
woman,  nor,  on  the  other  hand,  is  it  to  be  found  in  a  desire  to 
secure  fruitfulness ;  fruitfulness  is  generally  secured  by  offerings 
to  the  gods,  and  though  the  belief  has  doubtless  existed  that  it 
could  be  secured  by  commerce  with  a  supernatural  being,'2  there 
is  no  trace  of  this  belief  in  the  accounts  of  the  lives  of  the  hiero- 
dules ;  the  benefit  would  be  restricted  also  to  a  small  number  of 
women.  Probably  the  custom  was  developed  gradually  and,  like 
other  such  customs,  had  its  ground  in  simple  needs.  Women  were 
required  for  the  menial  work  of  shrines.3  Once  established  in  service, 
they  would  acquire  a  certain  sanctity  and  power  by  their  relation 
to  sacred  things,  and  at  the  same  time  would,  as  unattached,  be 
sought  by  men.  Their  privileges  and  license  would  grow  with 
time  —  they  would  become  an  organized  body,  and  would  seek 
to  increase  their  power.  In  the  course  of  time  current  religious 
ideas,  low  or  high,  would  attach  to  them.  They  would  be  sup- 
posed to  be  in  the  confidence  of  the  deity,  able  to  interpret  his 
will,  and  endowed  with  the  power  of  cursing  or  blessing.4  With 
the  growth  of  refinement  they  would  be  thought  of  as  servants 

1  Roscher,  Lcxikon,  article  "  Aphrodite,"  col.  401.  Cf.  the  practice  mentioned  in 
1  Sam.  ii,  22.  2  Curtiss,  Primitive  Semitic  Religion  To-day. 

3  See,  for  example,  1  Sam.  ii,  22. 

4  For  a  description  of  their  privileges  and  power  in  Ashanti  see  Ellis,  Tshi, 
p.  121  ff. 


5  16     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

of  the  deity,  belonging  to  him  and  to  no  other,  and  might  be 
described,  as  in  fact  they  are  sometimes  described,  as  his  wives. 
The  title  "  wife  "  would  be  compatible  with  purity  in  the  higher 
religious  systems,  but  in  the  lower  systems  would  be  connected 
with  license. 

1066.  Theories  of  the  origi?i  of  religious  prostitution.  The  license 
just  referred  to  is  a  part  of  a  widespread  custom  of  the  prostitution 
of  sacred  persons,  of  which  various  explanations  have  been  offered.1 
The  existence  of  the  custom  is  attested  for  the  larger  part  of  the 
ancient  civilized  and  half-civilized  world,  and  for  many  more  recent 
peoples.  In  old  Babylonia,  Canaan,  Syria,  Phoenicia,  Asia  Minor, 
Armenia,  Greece,  and  now  in  West  Africa  and  India,  we  find 
officially  appointed  "  sacred "  women  a  part  of  whose  religious 
duty  it  was  or  is  to  offer  themselves  to  men.2  The  service  in 
ancient  times  was  not  regarded  as  degrading;  on  the  contrary, 
maidens  of  the  noblest  families  were  sometimes  so  dedicated,  and 
the  role  of  devotee  might  be  continued  in  a  family  for  generations.3 
Such  service  was  sometimes  a  necessary  preliminary  to  marriage. 
This  seems  to  be  the  case  in  the  custom  reported  by  Herodotus 4 
that  every  native  Babylonian  woman  had,  once  in  her  life,  to  sit 
in  the  temple  of  Mylitta  (Ishtar)  and  wait  till  a  piece  of  money 
was  thrown  into  her  lap  by  a  stranger,  to  whom  she  must  then 
submit  herself  —  this  duty  to  the  goddess  accomplished,  she  lived 
chastely.  In  Byblos  a  woman  who  refused  to  sacrifice  her  hair  to 
Ashtart  on  a  certain  festival  day  had  to  yield  herself  to  a  stranger.5 

Official  male  prostitutes  also  there  were  in  some  ancient  cults ; 
but  information  about  such  persons  is  scanty,  and  they  seem  not 

1  License  in  festivals  and  mystical  or  symbolic  marriages  are  excluded  as  not 
being  official  consecration  of  a  class  of  persons. 

2  Examples  are  given  in  Westermarck,  Origin*  and  Development  of  the  Moral 
Ideas,  ii,  443  ff. ;  Frazer,  Adonis  Attis  Osiris,  chap,  iv ;  Seligmann,  Der  dose  Blick 
tmd  Verwandtes,  ii,  190  ff. ;  and  see  above,  §  384  ff. 

3  Inscription  of  Tralles  ;  see  Ramsay,  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phtygia,  i,  94  ff. ; 
Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  ii,  636. 

4  Herodotus,  i,  199.  The  correctness  of  Herodotus's  statement  has  been  doubted  ; 
but,  though  the  procedure  is  singular,  it  is  not  wholly  out  of  keeping  with  known 
Babylonian  customs.  It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  Herodotus  wrote  long 
after  the  fall  of  the  Babylonian  empire,  when  foreign  influence  was  possible.  See 
also  Epistle  offeremias,  v.  43.  5  Pseudo-Lucian,  De  Syria  Dea,  chap.  vi. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  517 

to  have  been  numerous.1  The  most  definitely  named  case  is  that 
of  the  Hebrew  official  class  called  kedeshim,  that  is,  persons  de- 
voted to  the  service  of  the  deity  and  therefore-  sacred 2  (as  it  is 
said  in  Zech.  xiv,  20  ff.,  that  bells  on  horses  and  temple-vessels  shall 
be  sacred  to  Yahweh).  These,  together  with  the  female  devotees, 
kedeshot  ("  prostitutes  "),  are  denounced  as  abhorrent  to  Yahweh ; 
both  were  features  in  the  ritual  of  the  Jerusalem  temple  of  the 
seventh  century  B.C.  and  apparently  earlier.3  The  female  devotee 
is  called  a  "  harlot "  and  the  male  a  "  dog  "  {kalb).  The  original 
religious  sense  of  the  latter  term  is  uncertain.  In  the  Old  Testa- 
ment it  occurs,  in  this  sense,  only  in  the  passage  cited  above.  In 
a  Phoenician  inscription  of  Larnaca  (in  Cyprus) 4  the  plural  of  the 
word  designates  a  class  of  attendants  in  a  temple  of  Ashtart,  and 
there  are  proper  names  in  which  the  term  is  an  element  (and 
therefore  an  honorable  title).  It  is  not  improbable  that  it  meant 
originally  simply  a  devotee  or  minister  of  a  god  in  a  temple,5  the 
bad  sense  having  been  attached  to  it  in  the  Old  Testament  from 
the  license  sometimes  practiced  by  such  ministers. 

The  sentiment  of  chastity  is  a  product  of  the  highest  civilization. 
In  many  savage  and  half-civilized  tribes  the  obligation  on  a 
woman  to  keep  herself  pure  is  not  fully  recognized,  and  in  the 
case  of  married  women  the  opposition  to  unfaithfulness  some- 
times springs  from  the  view  that  it  is  a  violation  of  the  husband's 
right  of  property  in  the  wife.  In  some  ancient  civilized  communi- 
ties a  god's  right  to  a  woman  seems  to  have  been  taken  for 
granted.6    Ordinary  prostitution  seems  to  have  existed  in  the  world, 

1  Homosexual  practices  do  not  belong  here  (Westermarck,  op.  cit.,  chap,  xliii). 
The  intercourse  of  priests  with  sacred  and  other  women  is  likewise  excluded. 

2  Deut.  xxiii,  18  [17]  f.,  "sodomite." 

3  1  Kings,  xiv,  24  (tenth  century),  where  the  kcdcshim  seem  to  be  described  as 
a  Canaanite  institution.    Cf.  Deut.  xxii,  5. 

**  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Semiticarum,  part  i,  i,  86,  B  10. 

5  With  allusion,  perhaps,  to  the  dog's  faithfulness  to  his  master.  In  the  A  mania 
Letters  a  Canaanite  governor  calls  himself  the  "dog"  {kalbu)  of  his  Egyptian 
overlord.  Cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  ike  Semites,  2d  ed.,  p  292,  n.  2.  For  exam- 
ples of  the  sanctity  of  the  dog  see  article  "Animals"  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of 
Religion  and  Ethics,  p.  512. 

6  Cf.  Frazer,  Adonis  Attis  Osiris,  p.  71  f.,  and  the  curious  story  told  in  Josephus, 
Antiquities,  xviii,  3. 


518     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

in  all  grades  of  civilization,  from  the  earliest  times.  This  attitude 
toward  the  custom  being  so  widespread,  it  is  not  strange  that  it 
has  established  itself  in  religious  organizations. 

Two  types  of  organized  religious  prostitution  have  to  be  con- 
sidered : l  there  is  the  Babylonian  (Mylitta)  type,  in  which  every 
woman  must  thus  yield  herself  before  marriage ;  and  there  is  the 
attachment  of  a  company  of  official  public  women  to  a  temple 
permanently  or  for  a  considerable  time.  The  explanations  that 
have  been  offered  of  these  institutions  fall  into  two  classes,  one 
tracing  their  origin  to  some  nonreligious  custom,  the  other  re- 
garding them  as  originally  religious  (these  classes  are,  however, 
not  necessarily  mutually  exclusive). 

Secular  explanations.  It  has  been  held  that  all  such  customs  go 
back  to  a  period  of  sexual  promiscuity,2  which  has  been  modified 
in  the  course  of  ages.  It  is  doubtful  whether  such  a  period  ever 
existed,3  but  it  is  certain  that  prenuptial  license  has  been  common, 
and  this  laxity  may  have  prepared  the  way  for  organized  prostitu- 
tion. More  particularly,  reference  is  made  to  puberty  defloration 
ceremonies,  when  the  girl  is  handed  over  to  certain  men  no  one  of 
whom  can,  by  tribal  rule,  be  her  husband  —  that  is,  before  marriage 
she  becomes  sexually  the  property  of  the  tribe  through  its  regularly 
appointed  representatives,  and  is  thus  prepared  for  membership ; 
then,  it  is  added,  at  a  later  period,  when  religious  service  has  been 
established,  the  girl  is  given  over  or  devoted  not  to  the  tribe  but  to 
the  tribal  god,  in  whose  shrine  she  must  submit  to  defloration,  in 
accordance  with  rules  fixed  from  time  to  time.  The  act  thus  becomes 
religious  —  it  is  a  recognition  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  deity,  and 
procures  divine  favor.  Such  may  be  a  possible  explanation  of  the 
procedure  in  the  temple  of  Mylitta  and  at  Byblos.4  But  the  mean- 
ing of  the  condition  imposed  at  these  places,  namely,  that  the  man 

1  The  Lydian  method  by  which  girls  earned  their  dowries  (Herodotus,  i,  93)  is 
economic,  and  had,  apparently,  no  connection  with  religion. 

2  See  above,  §  1S0.    Cf.  Ramsay,  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  1,  94  ff. 

3  Westermarck,  History  of  Human  Marriage,  chap,  iii  ff. 

4  At  Byblos  the  prostitution  of  the  woman  was  required  only  in  case  she  refused 
to  offer  her  hair  to  the  goddess.  This  offering  was  probably  originally  a  substitute 
for  the  offering  of  her  virginity,  but  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  latter  was  of  the 
nature  of  a  sacrifice. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  519 

to  whom  the  woman  yields  herself  must  be  a  stranger,  is  not  clear. 
It  is  hardly  probable  that  an  outsider  was  called  on  to  perform 
what  was  regarded  as  a  dangerous  duty  —  a  stranger  would  not 
be  likely  to  undertake  what  a  tribesman  feared  to  do.1  Nor  is  the 
power  of  a  stranger  to  confer  benefits  so  well  established  that  we 
can  regard  his  presence  as  intended  to  bring  a  blessing  to  the  girl.2 
More  to  the  point,  in  one  respect,  is  the  conjecture  that  we  have 
here  an  attenuated  survival  of  the  exogamic  rule  —  the  girl  must 
marry  out  of  her  social  group ; 8  the  old  social  organization  having 
disappeared,  the  "  stranger  "  takes  the  place  of  the  original  func- 
tionary, and  the  deity  the  place  of  the  clan.  This  explanation  has 
much  in  its  favor ;  but,  as  it  is  hardly  possible  to  establish  an  his- 
torical connection  between  the  older  and  the  later  custom,  it  cannot 
be  said  to  be  certain,  and  the  origin  of  the  "  stranger-feature " 
remains  obscure. 

Religious  explanation.  Sacred  prostitution  is  supposed  by  many 
writers  to  have  sprung  from  the  cult  of  the  goddess  who  repre- 
sented the  productive  power  of  the  earth4  (Mother  Earth,  the 
Great  Mother).  While  such  a  figure  is  found  in  many  of  the 
lower  tribes,  it  is  only  among  civilized  peoples,  and  particularly  in 
Western  Asia,  that  the  cult  acquired  great  importance.  By  the  side 
of  the  female  figure  there  sometimes  stands  a  male  representative 
of  fertility  (Tammuz  by  the  side  of  Ishtar,  Attis  by  the  side  of 
Kybele)  who  is  regarded  as  the  husband  or  the  lover  of  the  goddess, 
but  occupies  a  subordinate  position.  In  early  times  the  goddess  is 
represented  as  choosing  her  consorts  at  will,  but  this  is  merely  an 
attribution  to  her  of  a  common  custom  of  the  period.  All  deities, 
male  and  female,  might  be  and  were  appealed  to  for  increase  of 
crops  and   children,  but   a   Mother   goddess  would   naturally   be 

1  Farncll,  in  Archiv  fur  ReligionswissenscJtaft,  vii.  88  (see  above,  §§  182,  594,  and 
cf.  Crawley,  Mystic  Rose,  p.  322).  Farnell  does  not  mention  this  suggestion  in  his 
Greece  and  Babylon,  p.  269  ff. 

2  Westermarck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  ii,  446;  cf.  Frazer, 
Golden  Bough,  2d  ed.,  Index,  s.w.  Stranger,  Strangers. 

3  Cumont,  Les  religions  orientates  dans  le  paganisme  romain  (Fng.  tr..  Oriental 
Religions  in  Roman  Paganism,  p.  247  f.)  ;  cf.  Hartland,  in  Anthropological  Essays  /re- 
sented to  Trior,  p.  201  f. 

4  On  this  cult  see  Mannhardt,  Baumkultus  and  Ant  ike  J] 'aid-  und  Feldkulfe. 


520     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

looked  on  as  especially  potent  in  this  regard.  Prayer  would  be 
addressed  to  her,  and  that,  with  offerings,  would  be  sufficient  to 
secure  her  aid ;  simply  as  patroness  of  fertility  she  would  not 
demand  prostitution  of  her  female  worshipers  —  some  special 
ground  must  be  assumed  for  this  custom,  and  it  is  held  that,  as 
fertility  was  produced  by  the  union  of  the  goddess  with  her  con- 
sort or  her  lovers,  this  union  must  be  imitated  by  the  women  who 
sought  a  blessing  from  her.1  The  probability  of  such  a  ground  for 
sacred  prostitution  is  not  obvious.  There  are  communities  of 
temple-courtesans  (in  West  Africa  and  India)  where  such  an  idea 
does  not  exist.  If  the  license  was  in  imitation  of  the  goddess,  this 
feature  of  her  character  requires  explanation,  and  the  natural  ex- 
planation is  that  such  a  figure  is  a  product  of  a  time  of  license.  In 
the  ancient  world  it  was  only  in  Asia  Minor  and  the  adjacent 
Semitic  territory  that  religious  orgies  and  debauchery  existed  — 
they  seem  to  have  been  an  inheritance  from  a  savage  age.  Or, 
if  the  prostitution  is  explained  as  a  magical  means  of  obtaining 
children,2  this  also  would  go  back  to  a  religiously  crude  period. 
Magical  rites,  many  and  of  various  sorts,  have  been  performed  by 
women  desiring  offspring  —  imitations  and  simulations.3  But  the 
giving  up  of  the  body  is  not  imitation  or  simulation  —  it  is  the 
procreative  act  itself. 

Organized  official  sacred  prostitution  must  be  regarded  as  the 
outcome  of  a  long  period  of  development.  License,  starting  at  a 
time  when  sexual  passion  was  strong  and  continence  was  not 
recognized  as  a  duty  or  as  desirable,  found  entrance  into  various 
social  and  religious  customs  and  institutions,  accommodating  itself 
in  different  places  and  periods  to  current  ideas  of  propriety.  Ap- 
propriated by  organized  religion,  it  discarded  here  and  there  its 
more  bestial  features,  adopted  more  refined  religious  conceptions, 
its  scope  was  gradually  reduced,  and  finally  it  vanished  from  re- 
ligious usage.  The  objections  urged  to  such  a  process  of  growth  are 
not  conclusive.4  Explanations  of  communities  of  temple-courtesans 

1  Mannhardt,  Antike  Wald-  und  Feldkidte,  ii,  284  ;  Frazer,  Adonis  Attis  Osiris, 
P-  33  ff-        2  Cf.  Hartland,  op.  cit.,  p.  199.        3  Hartland,  Primitive  Paternity,  chap.  ii. 
4  Frazer,  Adonis  Attis  Osiris,  p.  50  ft. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  52 1 

and  male  prostitutes  and  of  customs  affecting  individual  women 
are  suggested  above.1  Many  influences,  doubtless,  contributed  to 
the  final  shaping  of  the  institution,  and  we  can  hardly  hope  to 
account  satisfactorily  for  all  details  ;  but  the  known  facts  point 
to  an  emergence  from  savage  conditions  and  a  gradual  modifica- 
tion under  the  influence  of  ideas  of  morality  and  refinement. 

1067.  Organization  and  influence  of  the  priesthood.  In  accord- 
ance with  the  law  of  natural  human  growth  the  priests  in  most  of 
the  greater  religions  came  to  form  an  organized  body,  hierarchical 
grades  were  established,  many  privileges  were  granted  them,  and 
they  exercised  great  influence  over  the  people  and  in  the  govern- 
ment. In  Egypt  they  were  exempt  from  taxes  and  had  a  public 
allowance  of  food;  the  temples  at  the  capitals,  Memphis  and 
Thebes,  became  enormously  wealthy  ;  the  priests  exercised  judicial 
functions  (but  under  the  control  of  the  king) ;  they  cultivated 
astronomy  and  arithmetic,  and  controlled  the  general  religious  life 
of  the  people ;  as  early  as  the  thirteenth  century  B.C.  they  had 
attained  a  political  power  with  which  the  kings  had  to  reckon,  and 
still  earlier  (ca.  1400  B.C.)  the  Theban  priests  were  able  to  over- 
throw the  religious  reformation  introduced  by  Amenhotep  IV; 
the  departments  of  sacerdotal  functions  were  multiplied,  and  the 
high  priest  of  the  Theban  Amon,  whose  office  became  hereditary, 
controlled  the  religious  organization  of  the  whole  land,  set  himself 
up  as  a  rival  of  the  Pharaoh  in  dignity,  and  finally  became  the 
head  of  a  sacerdotal  theocracy.2 

1068.  While  the  Babylonian  and  Assyrian  priesthoods  were  not 
so  highly  organized  as  the  Egyptian,  and  never  attained  great 
political  power,  they  were  nevertheless  very  influential.  Astronomy 
and  astrology,  the  interpretation  of  omens  and  portents,  the  science 
of  magic  and  exorcisms,  the  direction  of  the  religious  life  of  kings 
and  people  were  in  the  hands  of  the  priests ;  the  great  temples 
were  rich,  there  were  various  classes  of  temple-ministers,  all  well 
cared  for,  and  the  chief  priest  of  an  important  shrine  was  a  person 

1  Cf.  Nilsson,  Grieckische  Feste. 

2  Maspero,Z?rtw«  of  Civilization;  Erman,  Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion,  Index, 
s.v. ;  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  Index,  s.v. 


522     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

of  great  dignity  and  power.  The  interpretation  of  sacrificial  phe- 
nomena was  made  into  a  science  by  the  priests,  and,  passing  from 
them  to  Greece  and  Italy,  exerted  a  definite  influence  on  the 
religious  life  of  the  whole  Western  world.1 

1069.  The  process  of  organizing  the  Hebrew  priesthood  began 
under  David  and  Solomon,  at  first,  under  Solomon  (who  favored 
the  Zadok  family),  affecting  only  the  Jerusalem  temple.  In  the 
Northern  kingdom  (established  about  930  B.C.)  there  seems  to 
have  been  a  similar  arrangement.  As  long  as  the  old  royal  gov- 
ernments lasted  (the  Northern  kingdom  fell  in  the  year  722  B.C.,  the 
Southern  in  586)  the  priests  were  controlled  by  the  kings.  On  the 
building  of  the  Second  Temple  (516)  and  the  reorganization  of 
the  Judean  community  they  became,  under  Persian  rule,  inde- 
pendent of  the  civil  government  and  finally,  in  the  persons  of  the 
highpriests,  the  civil  heads  of  the  Palestinian  Jews.  The  Macca- 
bean  uprising  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  the  Asmonean 
priest-dynasty,  in  which  the  offices  of  civil  ruler  and  religious  leader 
were  united.  After  the  fall  of  this  dynasty  (37  B.C.)  the  priestly 
party  (the  Sadducees,  that  is,  the  Zadokites),  forming  an  aristoc- 
racy, conservative  of  ritual  and  other  older  religious  customs  and 
ideas,  was  engaged  in  a  constant  struggle  with  the  democratic 
party  (the  Pharisees),  which  was  hospitable  to  the  new  religious 
ideas  (resurrection,  immortality,  legalism).  The  latter  party  was 
favored  by  the  people,  and  with  the  destruction  of  the  temple 
(70  a.d.)  the  priests  disappeared  from  history.  From  the  beginning 
they  appear  to  have  been  not  only  religious  ministrants  and  guides 
but  also  civil  judges  ;  their  great  work  was  the  formulation  of  the 
religious  law,  as  it  appears  in  the  Pentateuch,  and  it  is  probable 
that  the  shrines  (especially  that  of  Jerusalem)  were  centers  of 
general  literary  activity.  The  national  development  turned,  how- 
ever, from  sacerdotalism  to  legalism  —  the  later  religious  leaders 
were  not  priests  but  doctors  of  law  (Scribes  and  Pharisees). 

1070.  In  India  the  priests  formed  the  highest  caste,  were  the 
authors  of  the  sacred  books  (which  they  alone  had  the  right  to 
expound),  conducted  the  most  elaborate  sacrificial  ceremonies  that 

1  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  Index,  s.v. 


SOCIA L   I >/■: I  rEL O/'. Mi:. VT  t  )F  RELIGK  )JV  523 

man  has  invented,  and  by  ascetic  observances,  as  was  believed,  some- 
times became  more  powerful  than  the  gods.]  Ritual  propriety  was 
a  dominant  idea  in  India,  and  the  influence  of  the  priesthood  on 
the  religious  life  of  the  people  was  correspondingly  great.  Priests 
did  not  attempt  to  interfere  in  the  civil  government,  but  their  re- 
ligious instruction  may  sometimes  have  affected  the  policy  of  civil 
rulers.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Hindu  priesthood,  by  its  poetical 
productions  and  its  metaphysical  constructions,  has  become  a 
permanent  influence  in  the  world. 

1071.  The  early  (pre-Zoroastrian)  history  of  the  Mazdean  priest- 
hood is  obscure.  In  the  Avestan  system,  however,  a  great  role  is 
assigned  the  priests,  as  is  evident  from  the  vast  number  of  regu- 
lations concerning  ceremonial  purity,  of  which  they  had  charge.2 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  early  sacerdotal  organization  was 
elaborate  or  strict.  There  were  various  classes  of  ministrants  at 
every  shrine,  but  they  differed  apparently  rather  in  the  nature  of 
their  functions  than  in  rank. 

1072.  The  Greek  priestly  class  had  the  democratic  tone  of  the 
Greek  people.3  There  was  little  general  organization  :  every  priest 
was  attached  to  a  particular  deity  except  the  Athenian  King  Archon, 
who  had  charge  of  certain  public  religious  ceremonies.  The  mutual 
independence  of  the  Greek  States  made  the  creation  of  a  Hellenic 
sacerdotal  head  impossible.  In  Sparta  the  priestly  prerogatives  of 
the  king  were  long  maintained  ;  usually,  however,  there  was  a 
separation  of  civil  and  religious  functions.  Generally  in  Greece 
priests  were  chosen  by  lot,  or  were  elected  by  the  priestly  bodies 
or  by  the  people,  or  were  appointed  by  kings  or  generals.  They 
were  usually  taken  from  good  families,  were  held  in  honor,  and 

♦were  housed  and  fed  at  the  public  expense  (their  food  came  largely 
from  sacrificial  offerings).  It  was  required  that  they  should  be 
citizens  of  the  place  where  they  officiated,  and  should  be  pure  in 
body  and  of  good  conduct.    They  seem  to  have  been  simply  citizens 


1  Barth,  Religions  of  India,  Index,  s.v. :  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  Index,  s.v. 

2  Spiegel,  Eranische  Alterthumskunde,  vol.  Ill,  bk.  vi. 

3  O.  Gruppe,  Griechische  Mythologie,  Index,  s.v.  Priester;  Gardner  and  Jevons, 
Greek  .  Xntiquities,  Index,  s.v.;  Farnell,  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  passim. 


524     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

set  apart  to  conduct  religious  ceremonies,  and  their  influence  on  the 
general  life  was  probably  less  than  that  of  civil  officers,  poets,  and 
philosophers.  Greek  educated  thought  moved  at  a  relatively  early 
period  from  the  conventional  religious  forms  toward  philosophical 
conceptions  of  the  relation  between  the  divine  and  the  human.1 

1073.  The  minute  details  of  the  Roman  ritual  might  seem  to 
give  great  importance  to  priests ; 2  and  the  flamens  (the  ministers 
of  particular  deities)  were  of  course  indispensable  in  certain  sacri- 
fices. But  the  organization  of  Roman  society  was  not  favorable 
t©  the  development  of  specifically  sacerdotal  influence.  Religion 
was  a  department  of  State  and  family  government.  For  the  mani- 
fold events  of  family  life  there  were  appropriate  deities  whose 
worship  was  conducted  by  the  father  of  the  family.  The  title  rex 
(like  the  Greek  basileiis),  in  some  cases  given  to  priests,  was  a 
survival  from  the  time  when  kings  performed  priestly  functions. 
Later  the  consul  was  sometimes  the  conductor  of  public  religious 
ceremonies.  There  was  hardly  a  religious  office,  except  that  of 
the  flamen,  that  might  not  be  filled  by  a  civilian.  In  the  Augustan 
revival  membership  in  the  College  of  the  Arval  Brothers  was  sought 
by  distinguished  citizens.  It  was  thought  desirable  that  the  Pontifex 
Maximus,  the  most  influential  of  the  priests,  should  be  a  jurist; 
and  the  office  was  held  by  such  men  as  Julius  Caesar  and  Augustus. 
The  increase  of  temples  and  priests  by  Augustus  did  not  materially 
change  the  religious  condition.  The  adoption  of  foreign  cults  was 
accompanied  by  ideas  that  did  not  belong  to  the  Roman  religion 
proper.  In  general,  if  we  except  the  augurs,  who  represent  the 
lowest  form  of  the  sacerdotal  office,  the  priest  was  relatively  unin- 
fluential  in  Rome.3 

1074.  The  minimum  of  priestly  influence  is  found  in  the  national 
religion  of  China,  in  which  there  is  no  priestly  class  proper.4    In 

1  This  remark  applies  to  the  oracles  as  well  as  to  the  ordinary  temple-service. 

2  Cf.  Wissowa,  Religion  dcr  Ro/ncr,  Index,  s.v.  Pontifex,  Pontifices ;  Fowler,  Ro- 
man Festivals,  s.v.  Pontifices ;  Saussaye,  Lehrbuch  der  Religionsgeschichte,  2d  ed. 
(Roman  religion). 

3  On  the  other  hand,  the  Romans  have  given  us  such  fundamental  terms  as  '  re- 
ligion,' f  superstition,'  '  cult,'  '  piety,'  '  devotion,'  all  theocratic  and  individual. 

4  De  Groot,  Religions  System  of  China  :  Legge,  Religion  of  China ;  Doolittle, 
Social  Life  of  the  Chinese. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  525 

the  worship  of  ancestors,  which  satisfies  the  daily  religious  needs 
of  the  people,  every  householder  and  every  civil  official  is  a  minis- 
trant.  The  great  annual  sacrifices  to  the  heavenly  bodies  have 
been  conducted  till  recently  by  the  emperor  in  person.1  Public 
religion  is,  in  the  strictest  sense,  a  function  of  the  State.  Society, 
according  to  the  Chinese  view,  is  competent  to  manage  relations 
with  the  supernatural  Powers  —  it  needs  no  special  class  of  inter- 
mediaries. This  thoroughgoing  conception  of  civic  autonomy  in 
religion  connects  itself  with  the  supreme  stress  laid  on  conduct  in 
the  Confucian  system,  which  represents  the  final  Chinese  ideal  of 
life  : 2  man  constructs  his  own  moral  life,  and  extrahuman  Powers, 
while  they  may  grant  physical  goods,  are  chiefly  valued  as  incidents 
in  the  good  social  life.  The  great  speculative  systems  of  thought, 
Confucianism  and  Taoism,  gradually  gave  rise  to  definite  sacerdotal 
cults;  but  the  priests  of  the  Confucian  temples  serve  mainly  to 
keep  before  the  people  the  teaching  of  the  Master,  and  the  Taoist 
priests  have  become  largely  practicers  of  magic  and  charlatans. 
Chinese  religious  practice  remains  essentially  nonsacerdotal. 

1075.  The  Peruvian  cult  presents  a  remarkable  example  of  a 
finely  organized  hierarchy  closely  related  to  the  civil  government.3 
The  priests  were  chosen  from  the  leading  families ;  the  highpriest 
was  second  in  dignity  to  the  Inca  only.  The  functions  of  the  priests 
were  strictly  religious ;  and  as  the  masses  of  the  people  were  de- 
voted to  the  worship  of  local  deities  and  natural  objects,  it  seems 
probable  that  the  sacerdotal  influence  was  merely  that  which  be- 
longed to  their  supervision  of  the  State  religion.  Details  on  this 
point  are  lacking. 

Priests  played  a  more  prominent  part  in  Mexico,  entering,  as 
they  did,  more  into  the  life  of  the  people.4    On  the  one  hand,  the 

1  Some  high  official  will,  doubtless,  now  take  the  emperor's  place. 

2  This  seems  to  remain  true  notwithstanding  the  present  movement  in  China 
toward  the  adoption  of  Western  methods  of  education.  De  Groot's  estimate  of  Chi- 
nese religion  (in  op.  cit.)  is  less  favorable. 

3  Garcilasso  de  la  Vega,  Royal  Commentaries  of  the  Yncas,  ed.  C.  R.  Markham, 
part  i,  bk.  ii,  chap,  ix ;  Prescott,  Peru,  vol.  i,  chap,  iii ;  Payne,  New  World,  called 
America,  Index  ;  A.  Reville,  Native  Religions  of  Mexico  and  Pern,  Index. 

4  Sahagun,  Historia  General  de  las  Cosas  de  Nueva  Rs/ana,  Eng.  tr.  by  Mark- 
ham  ;  Payne,  op.  cit. ;  Reville,  op.  cit. 


526     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

numerous  human  sacrifices,  of  which  the  priests  had  complete  con- 
trol, kept  the  terrible  aspect  of  religion  constantly  before  the  mind 
of  the  public ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  milder  side  of  the  cult 
(for  the  Mexican  religion  was  composite)  brought  the  priests  into 
intimate  relations  with  adults  and  children.  As  the  priests,  apart 
from  their  monstrous  sacrificial  functions,  appear  to  have  been 
intelligent  and  humane,  it  is  not  unlikely  that  their  general  moral 
influence  was  good. 

1076.  The  influence  of  the  priesthood  on  religion  (and  on  civi- 
lization so  far  as  religion  has  been  an  element  of  civilization)  has 
been  of  a  mixed  character.  On  the  one  hand,  while  not  the  sole 
representative  of  the  idea  of  the  divine  government  of  the  world 
(for  soothsayers  and  prophets  equally  represented  this  idea),  it 
has  stood  for  friendly  everyday  intercourse  between  man  and  the 
deity,  and  has  so  far  tended  to  bring  about  an  equable  and  natural 
development  of  the  ordinary  religious  life ;  it  was  involved  in  the 
sacerdotal  functions  that  the  deity  might  be  placated  by  proper 
ceremonies,  whence  it  followed  that  the  priest,  who  knew  the 
nature  of  these  ceremonies,  was  a  benefactor,  and,  more  gener- 
ally, that  man  had  his  salvation  in  his  own  hands.  The  business 
of  the  priest  was  to  maintain  the  outward  forms  of  religion,  to 
order  and  elaborate  the  ritual,  to  organize  the  whole  cultus.1  This 
was  a  work  that  required  time  and  the  cooperation  of  many  minds. 
Priests  were,  in  fact,  naturally  drawn  together  by  a  common  aim 
and  common  interests  —  with  rare  exceptions  they  lived  in  groups, 
formed  societies  and  colleges,  had  their  traditions  of  policy,  gath- 
ered wealth.2  For  this  reason  they  were  in  general  opposed  to 
social  changes  —  they  were  a  conservative  element  in  society,  and 
in  this  regard  were  the  friends  of  peace. 

1077.  On  another  side  they  did  good  work  ;  they  were  to  some 
extent  the  guardians  of  morals.  In  ancient  popular  life  ethics  was 
not  separated  from  religion  —  religion  adopted  in  general  the  best 

1  In  the  political  and  social  disorders  in  Judea  in  the  seventh  and  sixth  centu- 
ries B.C.  the  priesthood  was,  probably,  influential  in  maintaining  and  transmitting 
the  purer  worship  of  Yahweh,  and  thus  establishing  a  starting-point  for  the  later 
development. 

2  Cf.  Breasted,  Religion  and  Thought  in  Ancient  Egypt,  lecture  x. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  527 

moral  ideas  of  its  time  and  place  and  undertook  to  enforce  obedi- 
ence to  the  moral  law  by  divine  sanctions.  Priests  announced, 
interpreted,  and  administered  the  law,  which  was  at  once  religious 
and  ethical ;  they  were  teachers  and  judges,  and  this  function  of 
theirs  was  of  prime  importance,  particularly  where  good  systems 
of  popular  education  did  not  exist.  Further,  as  a  leisured  class 
they  often  turned  to  literary  occupations ;  examples  of  their  liter- 
ary work  are  found  in  India  (poetry  and  philosophy),  Babylonia 
(the  history  of  Berossus),  Palestine  (Old  Testament  Psalter,  the 
works  of  Josephus).  They  offered  a  place  of  rest  in  the  midst  of 
the  continual  warfare  of  ancient  times. 

1078.  On  the  other  hand,  the  priesthood  has  been  generally 
conservative  of  the  bad  as  well  as  of  the  good.  It  has  maintained 
customs  and  ideas  that  had  ceased  to  be  effective  and  true,  and  in 
order  to  preserve  them  it  has  resorted  to  forced  interpretations  and 
has  invented  accounts  of  their  origin.  It  has  thus  in  many  cases 
been  obscurantive  and  mendacious.  It  has  tended  to  make  the 
essence  of  religion  consist  in  outward  observances,  and  has  not 
infrequently  degraded  the  placation  of  the  deity  to  a  matter  of 
bargaining  —  it  has  sold  salvation  for  money.  Priests  have  not 
always  escaped  the  danger  that  threatens  all  such  corporations  — 
that  of  sacrificing  public  interests  to  the  interests  of  the  order. 
They  have  drifted  naturally  toward  tyranny  —  the  enormous  power 
put  into  their  hands  of  regulating  men's  relations  with  the  deity 
has  led  to  the  attempt  to  regulate  men's  general  thought,  though 
in  most  of  the  great  religions  their  power  in  this  regard  has  been 
partly  controlled  by  the  civil  authority  and  by  the  general  intelli- 
gence of  the  community.  When  they  have  not  been  controlled, 
they  have  often  succumbed  to  the  temptations  that  beset  wealth ; 
they  have  fallen  into  habits  of  luxury  and  debauchery. 

1079.  \\\  a  word  the  history  of  the  priesthood  has  been  like 
that  of  all  bodies  of  men  invested  with  more  or  less  arbitrary 
power.  Its  role  has  varied  greatly  in  different  places  and  at  dif- 
ferent times.  It  has  numbered  in  its  ranks  good  men  and  bad,  and 
has  favored  sometimes  righteous,  sometimes  unrighteous,  causes. 
It  is  not  possible  to  define  its  influence  on  religion  further  than  to 


528     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

say  that  it  has  been  a  natural  element  of  the  organization  of  reli- 
gion, taking  its  form  and  coloring  from  the  various  communities 
in  which  it  has  existed,  embodying  current  ideas  and  thus  acting  as 
a  uniting  and  guiding  force  at  a  time  when  higher  forces  were  lack- 
ing. It  has  formed  a  transitional  stage  in  the  advance  of  religious 
thought  toward  better  conceptions  of  the  relation  of  man  to  the  deity. 

1080.  Islam  has  no  priesthood,  as  it  has  no  provision  for  atone- 
ment for  sin  except  by  the  righteous  conduct  of  the  individual ;  its 
cultic  officials  are  preachers  or  leaders  of  prayer  (imams)  in  the 
mosque  worship,  and  jurists  or  scholars  (ulamas)  who  interpret 
the  Koran.  Judaism  has  had  no  priests  since  the  destruction  of 
the  Second  Temple  (70  a.d.)  ;  its  synagogue  services  are  con- 
ducted by  men  trained  in  the  study  of  the  Bible  or  the  Talmud 
(rabbis).  In  Christianity  the  conception  of  a  sacrificial  ministrant 
has  been  retained  in  those  churches  (the  Greek  and  the  Roman) 
which  regard  the  eucharistic  ceremony  as  a  sacrifice.  In  the  West 
the  "  presbyter  "  (such  is  the  New  Testament  term),  the  head  of 
the  congregation,  took  over  the  function  of  the  old  priest  as  con- 
ductor of  religious  worship,  and  the  word  assumed  the  form 
"  priest "  in  the  Latin  and  Teutonic  languages.  Among  Protes- 
tants it  is  employed  only  in  the  Church  of  England,  in  which,  how- 
ever, for  the  most  part  it  has  not  the  signification  of  '  sacrificer.' 

Worship 

1081.  Places  of  worship.  The  simplest  form  of  early  worship 
is  the  presentation  of  an  offering  to  the  dead  or  to  some  extra- 
human  object  of  reverence.  Such  objects  were  held  to  exist  in  all 
the  world,  in  the  sky,  in  rocks,  streams,  woods,  caves,  hills  and 
mountains,  and  beneath  the  surface  of  the  earth  ;  but  it  was  chiefly 
in  places  of  human  resort  that  their  presence  was  expected.  On 
some  natural  object  or  at  some  spot  regarded  as  sacred,  particu- 
larly where,  it  was  believed,  a  spirit  or  deity  had  manifested  him- 
self (in  some  remarkable  natural  phenomenon,  or  in  some  piece 
of  good  fortune  or  ill  fortune),  the  worshiper  would  place  his  offer- 
ing. Sometimes  it  was  left  to  be  disposed  of  by  the  deity  or  spirit 
or  dead  person  at  his  pleasure.    When  the  offering  was  an  animal, 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  529 

the  blood,  as  food,  was  often  applied  to  the  grave  or  to  the  stone 
or  other  object  connected  with  a  superhuman  Power.  In  the  course 
of  time,  it  may  be  supposed,  it  would  be  found  convenient  to  erect 
a  table  or  some  other  structure  on  which  an  animal  could  be  slain. 
Such  a  structure  would  be  an  altar.  At  first  simple,  a  heap  of 
stones,  a  pile  of  dirt,  a  rough  slab,  it  was  gradually  enlarged  and 
ornamented,1  and  itself,  by  association,  became  sacred. 

1082.  Places  where  the  presence  of  the  divine  was  recognized 
were  sacred.  In  them  worship  was  paid  to  the  deity,  and  in  the 
course  of  time  they  were  marked  off  and  guarded  against  profane 
use.  At  first,  however,  they  were  merely  spots  on  hills  or  in  groves, 
by  streams  or  in  the  open  country,  needing  no  marks  or  watches, 
for  they  were  known  to  all  and  were  protected  by  the  reverence 
of  the  people.2  When  the  land  came  to  be  more  thickly  populated 
and  religion  was  better  organized,  such  places  were  inclosed  and 
committed  to  the  care  of  official  persons.  Well-known  examples 
are  the  Greek  temenos  and  the  Arabian  haram*  Taboos  and  privi- 
leges attached  themselves  to  such  inclosures.  Precautions  had  to 
be  taken  on  entering  them  ;  the  shoes,  for  example,  were  removed, 
lest  they  should  absorb  the  odor  of  sanctity  and  thus  become  unfit 
for  everyday  use.  The  spaces  thus  set  apart  were  sometimes  of 
considerable  extent  (as  was  and  is  "the  case  at  Mecca);  within  them 
no  war  could  be  waged  and  no  fugitive  seized.  Sometimes  they 
owed  their  sacredness  to  the  buildings  to  which  they  were  attached. 

1083.  The  necessity  for  a  house  of  worship  arose  very  early.4 
Where  there  was  an  image  or  a  symbol  of  a  god,  or  where  the 

1  So  Ezekiel's  altar  (probably  a  copy  of  that  in  the  Jerusalem  temple-court),  over 
16  feet  high,  with  a  base  27  feet  square  (Ezek.  xliii,  13  ff.).  The  Olympian  altar  was 
22  feet  high  and  125  feet  in  circumference.  Cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites, 
2d  ed.,  pp.  202,  341,  yn  ff.  On  the  general  subject  see  article  "Altar"  in  Hastings, 
Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  So  in  Australia  (Spencer  and  Gillen,  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia,  Index, 
and  Native  Tribes  of  Northern  Australia,  Index),  Samoa  (Turner),  Canaan  (Gene- 
sis, Judges,  passim),  Greece  (Gardner  and  Jevons,  Greek  Antiquities,  p.  173),  etc. 

3  Gardner  and  Jevons,  op.  cit.,  Index,  s.v.  re/xevos,  Temple:  Wdlhausen,  Rcste 
arabischen  Heidentumes,  Index;  \V.  R.  Smith,  op.  cit.,  Index,  s.v.  Temples.  There 
is  perhaps  a  hint  of  such  a  place  in  Ex.  iii,  5. 

4  K.  F.  Hermann.  Gottesdienstliche  Alterthumer  der  Griechen,  §  18;  Jevons,  In- 
troduction to  the  History  of  Religion,  ist  ed.,  p.  137. 


530     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

apparatus  of  sacrifice  or  of  other  ritual  practice  was  considerable, 
buildings  were  required  for  the  protection  of  these  objects  and 
perhaps  for  the  convenience  of  the  ministrants.  The  development 
of  buildings  followed  the  course  of  all  such  arrangements  —  at 
first  rude,  they  became  gradually  elaborate  and  costly.  In  many 
savage  tribes  and  in  the  earliest  period  of  civilized  peoples  (Egyp- 
tians, Hebrews,  al.)  a  hut,  constructed  like  those  of  the  people  and 
therefore  of  a  very  simple  character,  houses  the  image  or  other 
representative  of  the  god.  With  the  progress  of  artistic  feeling 
and  skill  abodes  of  men  grow  into  palaces  and  abodes  of  deities 
into  temples.  It  is  on  the  temples  that  the  greatest  labor  has  been 
expended,  partly  because  they  are  the  work  of  the  whole  com- 
munity, partly  because  it  has  been  believed  that  the  favor  of  the 
deity  would  be  gained  by  making  his  dwelling-place  magnificent.1 
The  essential  fact  in  a  temple — -its  definition  —  is  (in  the  lower 
cults)  and  was  (in  the  great  ancient  cults)  that  it  is  or  was  the 
home  of  a  god,  the  specific  place  of  approach  to  him,  with  the 
possibility  of  face-to-face  intercourse  and  a  greater  probability  of 
gaining  the  blessings  desired.  This  local  conception  of  the  deity 
continued  after  larger  ideas  had  arisen,2  and  is  to  be  found  at  the 
present  day  in  some  Christian  circles. 

1084.  Temples  have  tended  to  grow  not  only  in  beauty  and  mag- 
nificence but  also  in  elaborateness  of  interior  arrangements  and  of 
connected  structures.  Anciently  they  were  specifically  places  of 
sacrifice  —  the  abodes  of  gods  to  whom  sacrifice  was  offered  — 
and  this  function  generally  determined  their  interior  form.  Some- 
times they  contained  a  single  room  in  which  stood  an  image  and 
an  altar;  this  was  the  simplest  architectural  embodiment  of  the 
idea  of  divine  sacredness.  But  the  progress  of  ritual  forms  was 
accompanied  by  the  notion  of  grades  of  sanctity,  and  a  special 
sanctity  was  indicated  by  a  special  room,  an  adytum,  an  inner  or 
most  holy  shrine ; 3  where,  as  was  often  the  case,  gradations  in 
priestly  rank  existed,  only  the  highest  priest  could  enter  the  adytum. 

1  Cf .  article  "  Architecture  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

2  Ps.  xlii,  3  [2]  ;  lxxxiv,  3  [2]. 

3  So  in  Egypt,  Palestine,  Greece,  and  probably  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  531 

For  the  implements  of  service  and  for  the  priests  there  were  build- 
ings attached  to  the  temple.  The  people  gathered  in  courts  ad- 
joining the  sacred  structure ;  where  ritual  exactness  was  carried 
very  far  (as  in  Ezekiel's  plan  and  in  Herod's  temple),  there  were 
gradations  in  the  courts  also.1  Usually  an  altar  stood  in  one  of 
the  courts.  The  sacredness  of  the  sanctuary  communicated  itself 
to  the  vessels  and  other  implements  of  the  sacrificial  service. 

1085.  Temples,  like  sacred  inclosures  and  altars,  were  often 
asylums,  and  doubtless  in  many  cases  served  to  protect  innocent 
persons.  The  privilege,  however,  was  often  abused,  and  it  became 
necessary  in  Greece  and  Rome  to  restrain  it.2 

1086.  As  a  factor  in  the  development  of  art  the  temple  has 
been  important.  It  has  called  forth  the  best  architectural  skill  of 
man,  and  the  statues  that  often  adorned  sacred  buildings  have 
stimulated  sculpture.  It  does  not  appear  that  symbolism  entered 
into  the  idea  of  ancient  temples.3  The  Babylonian  and  Assyrian 
zikkurat  (or  ziggurat)  was  a  staged  structure  (resembling  in  this 
regard  the  Egyptian  pyramid),  supposed  by  many  scholars  to  be 
an  imitation  of  the  mountains  whence  the  predecessors  of  the 
Semites  in  Babylonia  came,  and  on  which  they  worshiped ; 4  if 
this  be  so,  there  is  no  attempt  at  pointing  upward  to  the  abode 
of  the  gods.  Nor  is  there  any  trace  elsewhere  in  the  ancient 
world  of  a  symbolic  significance  attached  to  temples  beyond  the 
distinction  of  place,  referred  to  above,  between  the  sacred  and 
the  profane  and  between  different  degrees  of  sacredness.  The 
form  of  temples  appears  to  have  been  determined  by  imitation  of 
early  nonreligious  usage  or  by  considerations  of  convenience ; 5 
the  ziggurat  may  have  been  suggested  by  a  high  place,  the  adytum 
by  a   cave,  but  most  temples  were  probably  copies  of  ordinary 

1  In  Herod's  temple :  the  Court  of  the  Gentiles,  the  Court  of  Women,  the  Court 
of  Israel  (Nowack,  Lehrbuch  der  hebraischen  Archaologie,  ii,  76  ff.). 

2  Pauly-Wissowa,  Real-Encyclopddie  der  classischen  Altertumswissenschaft  \  arti- 
cle "  Asylum  "  in  Jewish  Encyclopedia.  The  right  of  asylum  goes  back  to  very  early 
forms  of  society  in  all  parts  of  the  world  ;  many  examples  are  cited  by  Wester- 
marck,  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  Index,  s.v.  Asylums. 

3  Cf.  above,  §  121.  4  Jastrow,  Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  chap.  xxvi. 
5  On  the  supposed  difference  of  symbolism  between  Greek  and  Gothic  temples 

(churches)  see  Ruskin,  Seven  Lamps  of  Architecture. 


532     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

human  dwellings  or  civic  buildings  (as  in  late  Latin,  basilica  is 
used  in  the  sense  of  '  cathedral '). 

As  abodes  of  priests  temples  were  the  centers  of  all  priestly 
activities  in  the  development  of  ritual  and  literature.  Being  strong 
and  well  guarded  they  were  often  used  by  kings  as  treasure-houses ; 
but  they  were  stripped  of  their  wealth  by  native  kings  in  times  of 
need,  and  were  freely  plundered  by  conquerors. 

1087.  Forms  of  worship.  The  ancient  forms  of  divine  worship, 
as  is  remarked  above,1  follow  in  a  general  way  the  modes  of  ap- 
proaching human  potentates.  Ceremonies  of  worship  reached  a 
high  degree  of  elaboration  in  the  great  religions,  Egyptian,  Baby- 
lonian-Assyrian, Hebrew,  Hindu,  Greek,  Roman.2  The  central 
fact  was  the  presentation  of  the  offering,  and  with  this  came  to 
be  connected  prayers  and  hymns,  ceremonies  of  purification,  vows, 
imprecations,  exorcisms,  oracles ;  the  festivals  also  were  religious 
functions.  Prayer  is  spoken  of  below.3  Hymns  sometimes  con- 
sisted of  or  contained  petitions,  more  generally  were  laudations  of 
the  power  and  benefactions  of  a  deity.  For  poetical  charm  the 
first  place  is  to  be  assigned  to  the  Egyptian,  Hebrew,  and  Hindu 
hymns.  The  religious  ideas  expressed  in  such  compositions  varied 
with  time  and  place,  but  they  show  a  general  tendency  toward  a 
monolatrous  or  henotheistic  point  of  view  and  toward  higher  ethi- 
cal and  spiritual  feeling.  Many  of  the  Egyptian  hymns  seem  to 
be  substantially  monotheistic,  and  the  same  thing  is  true  of  the 
Babylonian,  the  Assyrian,  and  the  Vedic.  The  Babylonian  hymns 
so  far  recovered  (belonging  in  their  present  form  mostly  to  the 
seventh  century  B.C.)  are  chiefly  penitential4  and  show  a  close 
resemblance  to  some  Hebrew  psalms.  In  the  Veda  traces  of 
philosophical  thought,  pantheistic  and  other,  are  not  lacking.  The 
poems  of  the  Old  Testament  Psalter  vary  greatly  in  breadth  and 

1§§15,  I2°,  note  3. 

2  For  details  see  Erman,  Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion,  p.  45  f. ;  Jastrow,  op.  cit., 
p.  658  ff. ;  articles  "Ritual"  and  "Sacrifice"  in  Encyclopaedia  Biblica ;  Bloomfield, 
Religion  of  the  Veda,  p.  213  f. ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  124  ;  LAnncc  sociolo- 
gique,  ii.  3  §  1IQ9. 

4  Some  hymns  to  Tammuz  are  lamentations  for  dying  vegetation  and  petitions 
for  its  resuscitation. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  533 

elevation  of  thought  —  some,  dealing  generally  with  national  affairs 
(occasionally  with  individual  experiences),  are  narrow  and  ethically 
low ;  others  show  exalted  conceptions  of  the  deity  and  fine  moral 
feeling.  The  Avestan  ritual  is  concerned  largely  with  physical 
details,  but  is  not  lacking  in  a  good  ethical  standard;  the  Gathas, 
particularly,  though  not  free  from  national  coloring,  give  a  note- 
worthy picture  of  the  government  of  the  world  according  to 
moral  law.  Of  Greek  ritual  hymns  we  have  few  remains,  and 
these  are  of  no  great  interest. 

1088.  Everywhere  the  temple-hymns,  as  is  natural,  deal  chiefly 
with  the  desires  and  hopes  of  the  worshiper,  and  often  do  not  rise 
above  mere  egoism.  Their  object  is  to  secure  blessing,  and  the 
blessing  is  often,  perhaps  generally,  of  a  nonmoral  character  — 
wealth,  children,  triumph  over  enemies.  Desire  for  moral  purity 
appears  in  some  Hebrew  hymns,  and  perhaps  in  some  Babylonian. 
Of  the  modes  of  presenting  liturgical  poems  to  the  deity  we  have 
few  details.  In  the  Second  Temple  at  Jerusalem  there  were  choruses 
of  ministrants  (Levites),  and  some  of  the  titles  of  the  psalms  con- 
tain what  seem  to  be  names  of  musical  instruments  and  melodies ; 
but  of  this  temple-music  nothing  further  is  known  than  that  it  was 
sometimes  sung  antiphonally,  but  without  harmony.1  In  some  parts 
of  Greece  boys  were  trained  to  render  hymns  musically  in  the  daily 
service  and  on  special  occasions.  The  general  character  of  old 
Greek  music  is  indicated  in  the  Delphian  hymn  to  Apollo  discov- 
ered in  1893  ;  -  the  melody  is  simple  but  impressive  —  there  is  no 
harmony. 

1089.  The  temple-music  doubtless  tended  to  heighten  devotional 
feeling  among  the  worshipers,  and  possibly  a  similar  popular  effect 
was  produced  by  the  festivals  that  were  common  in  the  ancient 
world.  Here  the  whole  population  took  part,  there  were  religious 
ceremonies,  and  the  consciousness  of  the  presence  of  the  deity 
was  made  more  distinct  not  only  by  visible  and  tangible  repre- 
sentations, but  often  also  by  the  fact  that  these  occasions  were 

1  1  Chron.  xvi ;  commentaries  on  the  Psalms;  works  on  Hebrew  archaeology 
(Nowack,  Benzinger)  ;   articles  in   Biblical  dictionaries  and  encyclopedias. 

2  Revue  des  etudes grecques,  1894.    On  savage  songs  and  music  see  above,  §  106. 


534     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

connected  in  current  myths  and  legends  with  histories  of  gods 
and  ancient  national  experiences.  Processions  and  pilgrimages 
brought  the  people  to  sacred  places  to  which  stories  were  at- 
tached, and  the  religious  life  became  a  series  of  object  lessons. 
The  Greek  and  Roman  calendars  contain  a  great  number  of 
feast  days,  each  assigned  to  some  god.1  The  Hebrews  at  a  com- 
paratively early  date  (eighth  or  ninth  century  B.C.)  connected  their 
great  festivals  with  remote  national  events ; 2  examples  of  festivals 
attached  to  recent  historical  events  are  Purim,3  the  Feast  of  Dedi- 
cation established  in  commemoration  of  the  rededication  of  the 
temple  by  Judas  Maccabaeus  (December,  165  B.C.)  after  the  Syrian 
profanation,4  and  the  "  Day  of  Nicanor  "  commemorating  the  vic- 
tory of  Judas  over  that  general  (March,  161  B.C.).5  In  the  Hindu 
festivals  (New  Year's  Day  and  during  the  spring  months)  stories 
of  gods  formed  a  prominent  feature.6  The  Greek  Genesia,  the 
season  of  mourning  for  the  dead,  came  to  be  connected  with  the 
victory  of  Marathon.7 

All  such  celebrations  tend  to  become  seasons  of  merrymaking, 
and  the  religious  element  in  them  then  receives  less  and  less  at- 
tention.8 This  remark  holds  of  the  festivals  that  Christianity  took 
over  from  the  old  religions,  adapting  them  to  the  new  conditions.9 
Such  occasions  lose  their  distinctive  religious  significance  in  propor- 
tion as  the  events  they  commemorate  recede  into  the  past  and  be- 
come less  and  less  distinct.  It  is  in  very  early  times,  when  they  are 
thought  of  as  representing  realities,  that  they  are  religiously  effective; 
in  later  times  they  give  way  to  more  reflective  forms  of  devotion. 

1090.  Vows,  blessings,  and  curses  may  be  considered  to  belong 
to  worship  in  the  regard  that  they  contain  petitions  to  the  deity ; 
the  curse  or  the  blessing,  however,  sometimes  rested  on  a  baldly 

1  Pauly-Wissowa,  Real-Encyclop'ddie  der  classischen  Atiertumswissenschaft ; 
Fowler,  Roman  Festivals. 

2  Passover  with  the  departure  from  Egypt ;  Sukkot  (Tabernacles)  with  the  march 
through  the  wilderness;  later,  Weeks  (Pentecost)  with  the  revelation  of  the  law  at 
Sinai.  3  Book  of  Esther.  4  i  Mace,  v,  47  ff.  5  1  Mace,  vii,  49. 

6  H.  II.  Wilson,  Religions  Sects  of  the  Hindus;  Monier-Williams,  Hinduism, 
Index.  7  Gardner  and  Jevons,  Greek  Antiquities,  p.  289. 

8  They  sometimes  degenerate  into  coarseness  or  immorality. 

9  Christmas,  New  Year's  Day,  May  Day,  Midsummer,  All  Souls,  and  others. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  535 

objective  conception  of  the  power  of  words,  sometimes  was  held 
to  be  magical :  once  uttered,  the  word,  beneficent  or  maleficent, 
went  to  its  object,  person  or  thing,  did  its  work,  and  could  not  be 
recalled ;  its  effect  could  be  set  aside  only  by  an  utterance  in  the 
opposite  direction.1  A  magician,  by  the  power  resident  in  him, 
could  fix  a  curse  or  a  blessing  on  man  or  thing.  An  exorcism, 
also,  might  be  effected  by  magic  or  by  invoking  the  aid  of  a  deity ; 
an  evil  spirit  is  a  supernatural  Power  and  has  to  be  considered  — 
one  does  not  worship  such  a  being,  but  one  may  employ  religious 
means  to  circumvent  him.  Bad  magic  may  be  overcome  by  good 
magic,  and  a  deity,  hostile  and  maleficent  under  certain  circum- 
stances, may  be  placated  by  offerings.  It  is  not  always  easy  to 
draw  the  line  between  worship  proper  and  modes  of  defense  against 
injurious  Powers.  But  in  general  true  worship  implies  friendly 
relations  between  human  and  superhuman  persons. 

1091.  Idols.  From  an  early  time  men  have  desired  to  have  visi- 
ble representatives  of  the  supernatural.  So  long  as  natural  objects, 
trees,  stones,  mountains,  were  regarded  as  themselves  divine  or  as 
the  abodes  of  spirits,  so  long  as  a  loose  social  organization  and  the 
absence  of  definite  family  life  led  men  to  spend  their  lives  in  the 
open  air,  there  was  no  need  of  artificial  forms  of  the  Powers.  Such 
a  need  arose  inevitably,  however,  under  more  advanced  social  con- 
ditions. Exactly  at  what  stage  men  began  to  make  images  it  is 
hardly  possible  to  say,  —  the  process  was  begun  at  different  stages 
in  different  regions,  —  but  it  appears  that  in  general  it  was  syn- 
chronous with  some  fairly  good  form  of  social  organization.  Yet, 
where  such  forms  exist,  there  are  differences  in  the  use  of  images. 
These  are  found  —  to  take  the  lower  peoples  —  in  Melanesia  and 
the  Northern  Pacific  Ocean,  in  the  northern  part  of  South  America, 
in  North  America  apparently  only  among  the  Eastern  Redmen  (as 
the  Lenape  or  Delawares),2  and  on  the  western  coast  of  Africa 

1  The  protest  in  Prov.  xxvi,  2,  against  this  whole  conception  shows  that  it 
existed  among  the  Jews  down  to  a  late  time. 

'2  Totemic  poles,  with  carved  figures  of  animals,  are  found  in  Northwest  America 
(Boas,  The  Kwakhttl;  Swanton,  in  Journal of  American  Folklore,  xviii,  108  ff.)  and  in 
South  Nigeria  (Partridge,  Cross  River  Nath'es,  p.  219)  ;  but  these  figures  are  rather 
tribal  or  clan  symbols  than  idols. 


536     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

(Ashanti,  Dahomi,  Yoruba).  Where  the  cult  of  beasts  (whether 
totemic  or  not)  is  a  living  one,  idolatry  does  not  find  a  place ;  it 
is  only  when  communities  have  begun  to  be  agricultural  that  they 
have  artificial  forms  of  gods ;  that  is,  idolatry  comes  in  with  the* 
stage  of  culture  connected  with  the  agricultural  life.1 

The  development  in  the  form  of  images  is  familiar.  The  rude 
and,  to  modern  eyes,  grotesque  idols  of  the  lower  peoples  gradu- 
ally pass  into  the  more  finished  forms  of  the  civilized  nations.2 
Really  artistic  forms,  however,  were  produced  only  by  some  Semites 
(Babylonians  and  Assyrians)  and  in  the  Hellenic  and  Graeco-Roman 
worlds.  In  Central  America,  Mexico,  and  Peru  images  are  anthropo- 
morphic but  lacking  in  symmetry  and  grace.  Hindu  idols  are  often 
composite  and  grotesque,  sometimes  (especially  images  of  Buddha) 
highly  impressive. 

1092.  The  Hebrews  appear  to  have  had  no  anthropomorphic 
images  of  their  national  deity.  Down  to  a  late  period  there  was  a 
cult  of  household  gods,3  and  of  these,  probably,  there  were  images 
in  private  houses  and  in  shrines,  whether  anthropomorphic  or  not 
is  uncertain.  In  Solomon's  temple  (and  in  Ezekiel's  proposed  plan) 
figures  of  cherubs  (originally  divine  beings)  stood  on  the  walls  of 
the  main  room  and  guarded  the  ark  in  the  adytum  ;  they  were 
winged  creatures,  the  forms  derived  immediately  from  Phoenicia, 
ultimately  from  Babylonia ;  they  appear  only  in  the  great  public 
cult,  probably  did  not  enter  into  the  religious  life  of  the  people  at 
large,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  they  ever  received  divine  wor- 
ship.4 The  Hebrews  had  no  plastic  art  of  their  own,  seem  to  have 
had  small  disposition  in  their  earlier  history  to  make  images,  and 
later  such  forms  were  excluded  by  the  antagonism  of  the  prophets 
to  foreign  cults  and  by  refined  ideas  of  the  deity.5    The  absence 

1  The  situation  in  Egypt  was  exceptional ;  after  the  idolatrous  stage  had  been 
reached  the  old  worship  of  the  living  animal  survived. 

2  Aniconic  representations  of  deities  in  civilized  communities  (like  the  stone 
representing  the  Ephesian  great  goddess)  are  survivals  from  the  old  cult  of  natural 
objects.  3  Teraphim,  i  Sam.  xix,  13  al. 

4  In  the  literature  they  are  guardians  of  sacred  places  (Gen.  iii,  24)  and  throne- 
bearers  of  the  deity  (Ezek.  i,  26  :  Ps.  xviii,  11  [10]). 

5  The  numerous  images  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament  as  worshiped  by  the 
Israelites  appear  to  have  been  borrowed  from  neighboring  peoples.   The  origin  of 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  537 

of  images  in  the  Zordastrian  cult  may  be  accounted  for  in  a  similar 
way  —  from  early  lack  of  artistic  impulse  and  later  elevated  con- 
ceptions. In  China  there  are  images  in  household  worship,  but 
none  in  the  great  imperial  religious  ceremonies.1  Though  the  Koran 
does  not  expressly  forbid  the  cult  of  images,  yet,  as  the  old  Arabian 
cults  denounced  by  the  prophet  were  all  idolatrous,  images  were 
identified  with  false  religion  (polytheism)  and  have  been  avoided 
by  the  Moslems,  whose  strict  monotheism  left  no  place  for  them. 
1093.  Images  were  credited  in  half-civilized  times  with  a  certain 
personality,  were  flogged  or  destroyed  when  they  failed  to  do  what 
was  expected  of  them,  or  were  bound  in  order  to  prevent  their 
going  away.2  In  such  cases  the  conception  of  the  power  of  these 
objects  was  probably  a  confused  one;  though  they  were  known 
to  be  inanimate  pieces  of  wood  or  stone  or  other  material,  it  was 
believed  that  they  were  inhabited  by  spirits  or  deities,  and  it  was 
held  that  in  some  undefined  way  the  power  of  the  divine  agent 
was  transferred  to  its  physical  incasement  —  the  two  were  practi- 
cally identified.  This  sort  of  conception  soon  passed  away  and  was 
succeeded  by  a  symbolical  interpretation.  Whatever  the  ultimate  ori- 
gin of  the  Egyptian,  Babylonian,  and  Hindu  divine  and  semidivine 
forms  (which  are  sometimes  monstrous),3  it  is  probable  that  for  the 
more  thoughtful  worshipers  they  represented  divine  powers  and 
functions.  Uncouth  shapes  may  be  softened  or  transformed  by  fa- 
miliarity, and  by  association  with  higher  ideas  —  things  in  themselves 
repulsive  may  become  vehicles  of  devotion.4  In  all  religious  wor- 
ship objects  associated  with  pious  acts  acquire  sanctity  and  beauty. 

the  bull  figures  worshiped  at  Bethel  and  Dan  is  obscure,  but  they  appear  to  repre- 
sent the  amalgamation  of  an  old  bull-cult  with  the  cult  of  Yahweh. 

1  Possibly  the  civilization  of  China  was  in  earliest  times  identical  with  or  similar 
to  that  Central  Asiatic  civilization  out  of  which  Mazdaism  seems  to  have  sprung. 
Cf.  K.  Pumpelly,  in  Explorations  in  Turkestan  (expedition  of  1904),  i,  pp.  xxiv,  7, 
chap,  iv  f. 

2  The  same  feeling  appears  in  the  treatment  of  images  of  saints  by  some  Euro- 
pean peasants. 

3  For  Egyptian  forms  see  Rawlinson,  History  of  Ancient  Egyft,  vol.  i  ;  Maspero, 
Dawn  of  Civilization;  for  Semitic,  Ohnefalsch-Richter,  A'y/ros,  the  Bibley  and  Ho- 
mer; for  Indian,  Lefmann,  "  Geschichte  des  alten  Indicns"  in  Oncken's  Allgemeine 
GescJinlitc. 

4  Even  the  Hindu  women's  linga-cult  is  said  to  be  sometimes  morally  innocent. 


538      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

1094.  That  idolatry  in  ancient  times  was  not  a  wholly  bad  fea- 
ture of  worship  is  shown  by  the  excellence  of  the  great  religions 
in  which  it  was  practiced.  Its  general  function  was  to  make  the 
deity  more  real  to  the  worshiper,  to  make  the  latter  more  sharply 
conscious  of  the  divine  presence,  to  fix  the  attention,  and  so  far 
to  further  a  real  communion.  On  the  other  hand,  it  tended  to  pro- 
duce a  low  physical  conception  of  the  divine  person,  and  to  distract 
the  mind  of  the  worshiper  from  the  ethical  side  of  worship.  Its 
moral  effect  was  dependent  on  the  man's  character  and  thought. 
When  the  image  was  regarded  as  the  symbol  of  an  ethically  good 
Power,  it  was  a  reenforcement  of  pure  religious  feeling ;  when  it 
was  regarded  as  in  itself  a  source  of  physical  benefit,  it  was  a 
degrading  influence.  This  difference  of  effect  exists  in  those 
Christian  bodies  that  include  images  and  pictures  of  the  deity 
and  of  saints  in  their  apparatus  of  worship. 

Churches 

1095.  The  history  of  the  social  organization  of  religion  is  the 
history  of  the  growth  of  churches  —  voluntary  associations  for 
worship  ;  it  is  toward  the  Church  that  society  has  hitherto  moved.1 
Every  ancient  community  may  be  said  to  be  an  incipient  church 
in  the  sense  that  it  contains  the  germs  of  the  later  ecclesiastical 
development.  But  this  later  form  exists  in  such  communities  only 
in  germ  —  the  most  ancient  worship  was  communal,  an  affair  of 
clan,  tribe,  or  State.  Men  were  born  into  their  religious  faith  and 
could  no  more  change  it,  or  think  of  changing  it,  than  they  could 
change,  or  think  of  changing,  their  language  or  any  other  inherit- 
ance. It  was  inevitable,  however,  that  there  should  be  a  growth 
of  individualism  —  instinct  impelled  men  to  think  for  themselves  in 
religion  as  in  all  other  things.  Religion  was  a  part  of  the  general 
social  movement,  affected  by  all  other  parts  of  that  movement. 
Independence  of  thought  led  to  social  aggregations,  the  mem- 
bers of  which  were  drawn  together  by  similarity  of   ideas   and 

1  A  church  is  here  taken  to  be  a  voluntary  religious  body  that  holds  out  to  its 
members  the  hope  of  redemption  and  salvation  through  association  with  a  divine 
person  or  a  cosmic  power. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  539 

aspirations.  This  is  the  familiar  history  of  social  movements,  and 
that  in  religion  such  movements  have  been  continuous  will  be 
evident  from  a  brief  statement  of  the  historical  facts. 

1096.  Savage  scent  societies.  These  societies  are  referred  to 
above ; x  here  we  have  only  to  notice  their  germinal  ecclesiastical 
character.  They  represent  a  partial  break-up  of  tribal  communal 
worship  by  assigning  special  duties  and  granting  special  privileges 
to  certain  initiated  persons.  Totemic  groups  are  sometimes  (as  in 
Central  Australia)  charged  with  specific  functions  in  the  tribal  life; 
but  membership  in  such  groups  is  a  matter  of  birth,  and  they 
everywhere  tend  to  give  way  to  secret  societies.  These  latter 
often  have  charge  of  certain  religious  rites,  and  from  their  secret 
proceedings  and  from  a  knowledge  of  their  secret  lore  the  rest  of 
the  tribe  are  excluded. 

The  extent  to  which  religious  organization  and  influence  have 
been  carried  "is  illustrated  by  the  history  of  the  Polynesian  Areoi, 
the  most  remarkable  of  such  fraternities.2  The  Areoi  created 
'  mysteries,'  with  an  elaborate  ritual  whose  effectiveness  was  de- 
pendent on  absolute  accuracy  in  words ;  its  members  were  chosen 
without  regard  to  tribal  position  and  entered  of  their  own  free 
will ;  it  was  a  voluntary  association  and  made  its  own  religious 
laws.  It  was  restricted  (as  all  such  associations  are)  by  the  neces- 
sity of  paying  regard  to  existing  customs,  but  within  such  limits  it 
was  independent  of  the  tribe,  and  its  members  were  held  to  be 
entitled  to  special  honors  and  enjoyments  in  this  life  and  the  next 
(a  crude  conception  of  salvation).  It  was  essentially  a  church, 
and  other  societies,  in  Polynesia,  Africa,  and  North  America,  ap- 
proached this  position  more  or  less  nearly.  They  all  tended  to 
become  tyrannical  —  their  social  influence  enabled  them  to  impose 
their  authority  on  the  tribe,  and  they  did  not  hesitate  to  employ 
violence  in  asserting  their  rights.3  To  foreign  influence  they  were 
naturally  hostile,  since  this  generally  diminished  their  power. 
Founded  as  they  are  on  savage  ideas  they  have  disappeared, 
or   are   disappearing,   before   foreign   civilizations.     In   their   best 

1  §  530  f.  2  \y.  Ellis,  Polynesian  Researches,  vol.  i,  chap.  ix. 

3  II.  Webster,  Primitive  Secret  Societies,  chap.  vii. 


540     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

form   they   doubtless   gave   a   certain   unity  to   communities   and 
were  thus  an  element  of  order. 

1097.  Greek  mysteries.  In  Greece  dissatisfaction  with  the  cur- 
rent cults  expressed  itself  in  various  ways,  largely  through  poets 
and  philosophers,  who  asserted  themselves,  indeed,  individually, 
but  showed  no  power  of  organization.  The  task  of  organizing 
religious  opinion  fell  to  that  new  direction  of  thought  (vaguely 
called  "  Orphic  "  v)  which,  while  it  gave  prominence  to  spiritual 
ideas  and  moral  ideals,  introduced  a  lively  emotional  element  into 
worship.  In  the  Eleusinian  and  other  mysteries  this  element  was 
both  external  (dramatic  representations,  songs,  processions,  cere- 
monies of  initiation)  and  internal  (the  hope  of  salvation).  Without 
breaking  with  the  popular  religious  forms  the  mysteries  constructed 
their  own  forms,  chose  their  members,  and  created  a  religious 
imperium  in  imperio.  They  were  voluntary  associations  for  worship, 
ignored  distinctions  of  social  rank,  had  great  ideas  and  impressive 
rituals  —  apparently  all  the  elements  necessary  to  the  establish- 
ment of  churches  or  of  a  national  church.  Yet  they  faded  gradually 
away,  and  perished  finally  without  leaving  any  definite  impression, 
as  it  seemed,  on  Greece  or  the  world  without.2 

1098.  The  reasons  of  their  failure  are  not  far  to  seek.  They 
did  not  reach  the  Hellenic  mind  for  the  reason  that  they  were  of 
foreign  origin  and  much  in  them  was  opposed  to  the  genius  of  the 
Hellenic  religion.  Even  the  Pythagorean  reform  movement  of 
Southern  Italy,  with  its  strenuous  moral  culture  of  the  individual, 
seems  to  have  had  a  foreign  (Asiatic)  coloring.  It  was,  indeed,  at 
one  with  the  better  Greek  thought  of  the  time  (sixth  century  B.C. 
and  later)  in  its  elevated  conception  of  the  deity  and  of  worship, 
but  with  this  it  combined  ascetic  observances  and,  apparently, 
mystical  ideas ;  it  established  what  may  be  called  a  church,  which 
had  a  great  vogue  in  Southern  Italy  for  several  centuries  but  did 
not,  as  an  organization,  penetrate  into  Greece.  It  attracted  some 
thoughtful  men,  but  was  too  calm  and  restrained  for  the  masses.3 

1  For  a  large  definition  of  the  term  see  S.  Keinaeh,  Orpheus  (Eng.  tr.),  p.  v. 

2  For  a  possible  influence  see  below,  §  i  ioi. 

3  See  the  histories  of  philosophy  of  Ueberweg,  Windelband,  Meyer,  Zeller. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMEXT  OF  RELIGION  541 

1099.  It  was  different  with  the  Dionysiac  cult,  whose  wildness 
made  it  popular ;  of  foreign  origin,  it  was  in  time  partly  Hellenized 
and  in  Athens  took  its  place  in  the  regular  national  worship  ;  some 
of  its  foreign  features  were  taken  up  in  the  mysteries.  These  latter, 
with  their  enthusiasm  and  their  half-barbaric  ceremonies,  excited 
the  contempt  of  most  of  the  educated  class.1  These  cults  were 
Asiatic  —  not  Semitic  —  but  probably  a  product  of  a  non-Hellenic 
population  of  Asia  Minor  (Phrygia  and  other  regions),  developed 
during  a  period  the  history  of  which  is  obscure. 

1100.  The  Semites  seem  to  have  produced  no  mysteries  —  there 
is  no  record  of  such  cults  in  Babylonia,  Syria,  Phoenicia,  the 
Hebrew  territory,  or  Arabia  ;  Semitic  religion  was  objective,  simple, 
nonmystical.2  The  Syrian  cult  of  Tammuz  (Adonis),  which  was 
adopted  by  Hebrews  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.  (Ezek.  viii,  14),  was 
an  old  folk-ceremony,  not  a  mystery ;  it  is  allied  to  the  Attis  cere- 
monies of  Asia  Minor  and  to  the  mourning  ceremony  mentioned 
in  Judges  xi,  40  (mourning  for  a  dead  deity,  but  there  referred  to 
Jephthah's  daughter). 

1101.  The  Greek  mysteries,  then,  derived  their  orgiastic  side 
partly  from  Thrace,  partly  from  Asia  Minor.  They  chiefly  at- 
tracted the  lower  classes  and  particularly  slaves,  for  they  offered 
individual  independence  in  religion,  freedom  from  the  sense  of 
social  inferiority,  and  hope  for  the  life  to  come.  Thus  they  did 
not  appeal  to  the  Hellenic  spirit,  and  did  not,  as  organizations, 
survive  the  political  decadence  of  the  Greek  States.  But  it  is 
probable  that  their  effects  survived  in  the  recognition  of  the  pos- 
sibility of  religious  worship  apart  from  the  traditional  cults,  and, 
more  generally,  in  contributing  to  the  establishment  of  the  principle 

1  See  the  reference  in  the  Republic  (ii,  364  f.)  to  the  mendicant  prophets  with 
their  formulas  for  expiation  of  sin  and  salvation  from  future  punishment,  and  De- 
mftsthenes's  derisive  description  of  .Kschines  as  mystagogue  {De  Corona,  313). 

2  It  is  not  clear  that  the  peculiar  cults  described  in  Isa.  lxv,  3-5  ;  lxvi,  3  f.,  are 
of  Semitic  origin.  Their  history,  however,  is  obscure  —  they  are  not  referred  to 
elsewhere  in  Jewish  literature.  In  part  they  are,  like  the  cults  mentioned  in 
Ezek.  viii,  10,  the  adoption  of  the  sacred  animals  of  neighboring  peoples  ;  Isa.  lxv,  5 
seems  to  point  to  a  close  voluntary  association  with  a  ceremony  of  initiation,  but 
nothing  proves  that  the  association  was  of  Semitic  origin.  For  a  different  view  see 
W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed.,  p.  357  ff. 


542     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

of  individualism  in  religion.  An  historical  connection  between  the 
Greek  mysteries  and  the  later  individualistic  cults  is,  indeed,  not 
probable.  Cumont  believes  that  Mithraism  did  not  imitate  the 
organization  of  the  Greek  secret  societies.1  The  New  Testament 
use  of  the  term  '  mystery '  in  the  sense  of  '  esoteric  doctrine ' 2 
may  have  come  from  the  Asian  cult;  the  Mithraic  worship  was 
practiced  in  Tarsus,  the  native  city  of  the  Apostle  Paul,  in  the 
first  century  of  our  era.  However  this  may  be,  it  seems  probable 
that  the  conception  of  a  church  existed  in  the  Graeco-Roman  world 
before  the  beginning  of  our  era,  and  that  its  existence  was  due 
in  part  to  the  Greek  mysteries,  whose  members  were  scattered 
throughout  the  empire  of  Alexander. 

1102.  The  philosophical  systems  that  arose  in  Asia  and  Europe 
concurrently  with  the  Greek  mysteries  did  not  found  ecclesiastical 
organizations.  The  disciples  of  philosophers  formed  schools,  and 
the  adherents  of  each  school  constituted  a  group  the  members  of 
which  were  united  one  with  another  by  the  bond  of  a  common 
intellectual  aim  and  a  common  conception  of  life  and  of  the  world  ; 
and  there  was  also  a  scientific  union  between  the  various  groups, 
the  fundamental  methods  of  investigation  and  lines  of  thought 
being  the  same  everywhere.  But  the  object  of  thought  was  the 
discovery  of  truth  by  human  reason,  not  the  quest  of  salvation  by 
worship  of  the  divine.  The  emotional  element  essential  to  the 
formation  of  a  church  was  wanting,  and  where  philosophical 
systems  adopted  devotional  forms  these  were  not  the  creation  of 
philosophy  but  were  borrowed  from  current  cults.  They  sought 
happiness,  but  not  through  religious  ritual.  They  did  not  always 
formally  discard  or  condemn  existing  cults,  but  they  ignored  them 
as  means  of  salvation ;  they  sometimes  recognized  traditional  gods 
and  forms  of  worship,  but  interpreted  them  in  accordance  with 
their  own  ideas. 

1103.  In  India  the  Upanishads  practically  abolished  the  national 
pantheon  and  the  old  Brahmanic  ritual  —  knowledge,  they  taught, 
was  the  key  to  bliss,  and  the  knowledge  was  not  that  of  the  Veda, 

1  The  Mysteries  of  Mithra  (Eng.  tr.),  p.  29. 

2  1  Cor.  ii,  7;  Mk.  iv,  11  al. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  543 

it  came  by  reflection  ;  emancipation  from  earthly  bonds,  absorp- 
tion into  the  Infinite,  was  the  goal  of  effort,  but  the  effort  was 
individualistic  and  led  to  no  devotional  organization.  Ascetic  ob- 
servances, as  a  means  of  attaining  perfection,  were  an  inheritance 
from  popular  Brahmanism.1  In  China  Taoism,  originally  a  system 
of  thought  (based  on  the  conception  of  all-controlling  order)  that 
appealed  only  to  a  certain  class  of  philosophic  minds,  became  a 
religion  by  borrowing  crude  ideas  and  sensational  methods  from  a 
debased  form  of  Buddhism  and  other  sources.2  Confucius  steadily 
declined  to  teach  anything  about  divine  worship;  Confucianism 
remained  merely  an  ethical  system,  dealing  only  with  the  present 
life,  until  its  founder,  with  disregard  of  his  teaching,  was  divinized. 

1104.  Many  of  the  Greek  philosophers,  from  Socrates  and  Plato 
on,  were  definitely  (some  of  them  warmly)  religious,  but  their  reli- 
gion was  chiefly  valued  as  an  aid  to  ethical  life,  and  it  did  not 
respond  to  the  demand  for  communal  worship.  The  Platonic  and 
Stoic  conceptions  of  the  deity  were  pure,  but  they  remained  indi- 
vidualistic—  salvation  was  the  creation  of  the  man  himself.  The 
noble  hymn  of  Cleanthes  to  Zeus  3  and  the  fine  religious  morality 
of  Marcus  Aurelius  led  to  no  church  organization.  The  attempted 
combination  of  Platonism  and  Judaism  by  Philo  was  equally  result- 
less.  Neo-Platonism  also,  though  it  had  enthusiasm  and  some  sense 
of  brotherhood,  showed  itself  unable  to  produce  a  church.  Plotinus, 
indeed,  proposed  to  the  Emperor  Gallienus  the  establishment  in 
Campania  of  a  city  of  philosophers,  a  Platonopolis,  in  which  the 
ideal  life  should  be  lived,  but  the  proposal  came  to  nothing.4  The 
Neo-Platonic  union  with  the  deity  was  too  vague  a  conception  to 
bring  about  communal  worship,  and  the  deity  had  no  definite  role 
in  securing  the  salvation  of  men. 

1105.  Thus,  in  the  period  beginning  about  the  sixth  century  B.C. 
and  extending  into  the  Christian  era,  all  over  the  civilized  world 

1  Barth,  Religions  of  India,  p.  76  ff. ;  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  216  ff. ;  cf. 
Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda,  p.  282  ft. 

2  "Die  Chinesen,"  in  Saussaye,  Lehrbuch  der  Religionsgeschichte  \  R.  K.  Doug- 
las, Confucianism  and  Taouism  ;  De  (".root,  Religion  of  the  Chinese ,  cf.  II.  G.  Under- 
wood, Religions  of  Eastern  Asia.  3  Stobaeus,  Eclogues,  i,  30. 

4  Porphyry,  Vita  Plot'uii,  cap.  3. 


544     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

attempts  were  being  made  to  reconstruct  life  by  ethical  and  philo- 
sophical systems,  by  ascetic  observances,  and  by  mysteries.  These 
attempts  bear  witness  to  the  prevailing  sense  of  the  insufficiency 
of  current  schemes  of  life.  They  differ  according  to  differences  of 
place  and  time,  but  agree  in  the  search  after  something  better;' 
this  better  thing  was  always  ethical  and  in  most  cases  religious. 
Their  failure  to  construct  effective  organizations  was  due  to  the 
deficiencies  pointed  out  above. 

1106.  Buddhism  and  Jainism.  The  first  churches  produced  by 
civilized  men  arose  in  India  in  the  sixth  century  B.C.  out  of  the 
bosom  of  Brahmanism,  whose  failure  to  establish  a  church  was 
due  in  part  to  its  dependence  on  philosophical  speculation.  Of  the 
protests  against  the  Brahmanic  orthodoxy  the  most  important  were 
Buddhism  and  Jainism.1  Buddhism  discarded  philosophy  and  as- 
ceticism, and  came  forward  with  a  plan  of  salvation  that  was  intel- 
ligible to  all.'2  Disciples  gathered  about  the  Master  and  he  became 
the  object  of  enthusiastic  devotion.  All  complete  churches  have 
owed  their  origin  each  to  a  single  founder ;  this  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  insight  and  constructive  genius  of  the  founder  have  chosen 
out  of  the  mass  of  the  existing  thought  those  broad  principles  that 
the  times  demanded  and  have  presented  them  in  incisive  form  and 
with  freshness  and  enthusiasm.3  Buddha's  followers  quickly  formed 
themselves  into  associations,  the  entrance  into  which  was  by  free 
choice.  As  his  doctrine  of  salvation  was  nontheistic,  so  his  church 
was  nontheistic,  but  not  therefore  nonreligious.  The  ecclesiastical 
organization  was  simple,  but  effective.  The  original  Buddhism  has 
been  degraded,  especially  in  Tibet,  China,  and  Korea,  but  the 
church  form  remains  everywhere  more  or  less  recognizable.4 

1  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  chap,  xii  f . ;  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhism;  Barth,  Reli- 
gions of  India  ;  Oldenberg,  Buddha. 

2  The  problem  of  life  is  stated  to  be  how  to  get  rid  of  desire,  which  is  the  source 
of  all  suffering  ;  the  Buddhist  answer  is  that  desire  is  eliminated  by  moral  living,  for 
which  knowledge  is  necessary.  So  the  Socratic  school  based  virtue  and  happiness  on 
knowledge.    Cf.  also  the  Biblical  book  of  Proverbs. 

3  It  does  not  follow  that  every  founder  of  a  religion  will  establish  a  church  ;  other 
things  than  the  person  of  the  founder,  such  as  the  nature  of  his  teaching  and  the 
character  of  his  social  milieu,  enter  into  the  problem. 

4  On  current  proposed  reforms  of  Buddhism  in  Japan  see  Underwood,  Religions 
of  Eastern  Asia,  p.  222  ff. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OE  RELIGION  545 

1107.  Jainism,  while  differing  from  its  contemporary,  Buddhism, 
in  its  metaphysical  dualism  and  its  asceticism,  agreed  with  it  prac- 
tically in  its  method  of  salvation  from  the  ills  of  life.  It  established 
a  nontheistic  church  which  has  had  experiences  (polytheistic  and 
other)  like  those  of  Buddhism.  Historically  it  is  less  important  than 
the  latter;  it  still  has  a  considerable  following,  but  it  has  never 
passed  out  of  India.  Apparently  its  local  features,  metaphysical 
and  ascetic,  have  impeded  its  progress  —  it  lacks  the  simplicity  of 
Buddhism. 

1108.  Judaism.  Judaism  stands  on  the  border  line  —  it  was  a 
cult  that  approached  the  position  of  a  church,  yet  failed  to  reach 
it.  Its  line  of  movement  differed  in  toto  from  those  described  above. 
It  had  no  philosophy,  no  asceticism,  no  secret  societies,  and  it  did 
not  rely  on  its  ethical  code.  It  was  essentially  religious,  in  theory 
a  theocracy,  in  form  a  national  cult.  The  steps  by  which  the  old 
polytheistic  Israelite  nation  passed  into  the  monotheistic  Judaism 
can  be  traced  historically,  but  the  impulse  to  the  movement  was  a 
part  of  the  genius  of  the  people  and  cannot  be  further  explained. 
The  leaders  of  the  small  body  of  people  that  gathered  at  Jerusalem 
in  the  sixth  century,  after  the  break-up  of  the  year  586,  were  ani- 
mated by  a  patriotic  devotion  to  the  national  deity ;  without  political 
autonomy,  merely  a  province  of  the  Persian  empire,  the  sole  in- 
terests possible  for  the  people  were  racial  and  religious,  and  these 
isolated  them  from  the  neighboring  peoples.  Those  who  remained 
in  Babylonia  (where  they  were  prosperous  and  comfortable)  were 
similarly  isolated,  devoted  themselves  to  their  own  development, 
and  their  religious  attitude  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  Palestinian 
community.  Distance  from  the  temple  led  to  gatherings  in  various 
places  for  worship  (synagogues). 

The  Jews  thus  became  a  nation  organized  under  religious  law, 
with  an  institution  devoted  to  voluntary  communal  worship,  and 
offering  salvation,  at  first  for  this  life  only,  but  later  (from  the 
second  century  B.C.  onward)  for  the  future  life  also  —  these  were 
elements  of  a  church.  But  in  two  points  this  cult  fell  short  of  the 
complete  church  idea :  the  business  of  a  church  is  wholly  and  solely 
religious,  and  the  Jewish  nation  was  organized  not  only  for  religion, 


546     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

but  also  for  commerce,  politics,  and  war ; 1  and  the  synagogue  and 
the  temple-service  were  not  free  to  all  the  world  —  only  Jews  and 
proselytes  "2  might  take  part  in  them.  Any  religious  body,  it  is  true, 
may  properly  define  the  conditions  of  entrance  into  it ;  but  here 
the  restriction  was  national  —  the  synagogal  cult,  individualistic 
and  simply  devotional  as  it  purported  to  be,  was  a  part  of  the 
national  system,  and  its  membership  depended  almost  exclusively 
on  the  accident  of  birth.  Proselytes,  indeed,  formed  an  exception 
—  they  came  in  of  their  own  choice  —  but  they  were  numerically 
not  important  and  did  not  affect  the  general  character  of  the  cult.3 
The  Jews  came  as  near  the  ideal  of  a  voluntary  religious  associa- 
tion as  was  then  possible  under  the  hampering  conditions  of  a 
racial  organization  and  peculiar  national  customs.  Their  genius 
for  the  organization  of  public  religion  appears  in  the  fact  that 
the  form  of  communal  worship  devised  by  them  was  adopted  by 
Christianity  and  Islam,  and  in  its  general  outline  still  exists  in  the 
Christian  and  Moslem  worlds. 

1109.  Zoroastrianism  resembled  Judaism  in  its  later  practical 
monotheism  and  its  elaborate  ritual,  but  was  more  isolated  and  less 
advanced  in  the  formation  of  assemblies  for  voluntary  worship. 
Its  pre-Sassanian  period  produced  no  church,  only  a  national  cult, 
which  was  adopted  by  the  Parthians  and  others  in  debased  form, 
but  otherwise  did  not  attract  outsiders.  On  a  sect  that  arose  in 
Persia  in  Sassanian  times  see  below.4 

1110.  Christianity.  The  teaching  of  Jesus  was  directed  toward 
a  purification  of  the  existing  cult,  the  elimination  of  mechanical 
views,  and  the  emphasizing  of  spiritual  and  ethical  ideals.5    There 

1  The  two  last  of  these  functions  ceased  on  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the 
Romans  (yo  A.D.),  the  first  remained. 

2  Proselytes  arose  mostly  from  the  general  liberal  tendency  of  the  times  (from 
about  the  second  century  B.C.  and  on),  sometimes  from  lower  impulses,  sometimes 
they  were  made  by  force.  See  articles  in  Cheyne,  Encyclopedia  Biblica ;  Hastings, 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible  ;  and  Jewish  Encyclopedia. 

3  They  were  virtually  identified  with  the  Jewish  people.  On  the  early  form  of 
voluntary  devotion  to  a  foreign  deity  see  W.  R.  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites,  2d  ed., 

p.75ff.  4§i"5- 

5  On  attempts  to  discover  forms  of  Christianity  before  Jesus  see  W.  B.  Smith, 
Der  vorchristliche  Jesus,  and  Ecce  Dens  ;  M.  Friedlander,  Synagoge  und Kirche. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  547 

is  no  indication  that  he  purposed  founding  a  separate  organization.1 
But,  after  his  death,  his  disciples  were  drawn  together  by  their 
relation  to  him,  particularly  when  the  new  congregation  became 
predominantly  Graeco-Roman.  For  its  administration  the  syna- 
gogue was  the  model  —  from  it  were  taken  the  titles  and  func- 
tions of  some  of  its  officers  and  the  method  of  conducting  public 
service.2  But  the  new  ekklesia,  the  church,  followed  its  own  lines 
and  speedily  created  a  new  cult.  Its  fundamental  conception  was 
salvation  in  the  future  through  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  Christ.  In 
the  beginning  it  was  thoroughly  individualistic  and  voluntary.  It 
had  no  connection  with  the  State,  was  not  a  religio  licita  ;  its  ad- 
herents joined  it  solely  out  of  preference  for  its  doctrines ;  its 
activity  was  wholly  religious.  But  this  ideal  constitution  of  a 
church  was  not  long  maintained.  The  introduction  of  infant  bap- 
tism (toward  the  end  of  the  second  century)  and  the  adoption  of 
Christianity  as  the  religion  of  the  State  by  Constantine  went  far 
to  make  membership  in  the  Church  an  accident  of  birth  or  of 
political  position ;  in  this  regard  Imperial  and  Medieval  Chris- 
tianity did  not  differ  from  the  old  national  religions  —  it  was  a 
religion  but  not  a  church.  At  the  present  day  in  the  greater  part 
of  Christendom  one's  ecclesiastical  position  is  inherited  precisely 
as  the  ancient  clansman  inherited  his  special  cult.3  The  word 
"  church  "  has  largely  lost  its  early  signification  of  voluntary  reli- 
gious association,  and  has  come  to  mean  any  Christian  organization, 
or,  by  further  extension,  any  religious  body. 

1111.  The  secularization  of  the  Church,  the  failure  to  discriminate 
between  its  function  and  that  of  the  State,  is  an  inheritance  from 

1  The  two  passages  in  the  Gospels  (Matt,  xvi,  18;  xviii,  17)  in  which  the  word 
"  church  "  occurs  appear  clearly,  on  exegetical  grounds,  to  be  scribal  insertions  of 
the  later  period. 

2  "Elder"  and  "apostle"  are  Jewish  titles,  and  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures, 
prayer,  and  exhortation  formed  part  of  the  synagogal  service  ;  see  Schiirer,  The  lav- 
ish People  in  the  Time  of  Jesus  Christ  (Eng.  tr.),  II,  ii,  52  ff.,  and  article  "Apostle" 
in  Jewish  Encyclopedia.  Other  offices  arose  in  the  church  out  of  the  peculiar  con- 
ditions ;  the  eucharistic  meal  appears  to  have  been  developed  under  non-Jewish 
influence. 

3  So  far  has  the  idea  of  the  civil  character  of  the  Church  been  carried  that  in  some 
places  the  keeper  of  a  licensed  brothel  has  been  required  to  be  a  member  of  the 
State  Church. 


548     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Roman  Imperialism,  which  in  its  turn  was  derived  from  the  primi- 
tive clan  constitution  of  society  in  which  the  individual  had  no 
standing  apart  from  the  community.  From  the  Roman  Empire  it 
passed  to  Medieval  Europe,  and  it  has  survived  in  the  Christian 
world  by  force  of  inertia.  It  is,  however,  not  universal  in  Christen- 
dom (there  are  religious  bodies  in  which  individual  freedom  of 
choice  is  fully  recognized),  and  in  some  cases  where  it  exists 
formally  or  theoretically  it  is  practically  ignored.  Notwithstanding 
departures  from  the  ideal  the  services  of  the  Church  often  represent 
voluntary  worship ;  such  worship,  however,  has  been  the  rule  in 
all  religions  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present  day  and  does 
not  in  itself  distinguish  Christianity  from  any  other  religion. 

1112.  The  word  "  church  "  meant  at  first  a  local  Christian  con- 
gregation, but  was  enlarged  so  as  to  designate  the  whole  body  of 
Christians.  In  this  body  various  tendencies  of  thought  showed 
themselves  from  time  to  time,  and  new  organizations  were  formed 
that  constituted  new  churches  in  the  sense  that  they  had  their  own 
theological  dogmas,  ritual,  and  conditions  of  membership.  Most 
of  them  had  brief  careers  and  offer  nothing  of  interest  for  the 
history  of  the  development  of  the  church-idea.  Gnosticism  was  a 
serious  and  noteworthy  attempt  to  bridge  over  the  gap  between  a 
good  supreme  God  and  an  evil  world,  and  was  in  form  a  church, 
but  its  philosophical  and  mystical  sides  had  so  much  that  was  fan- 
ciful and  grotesque  or  ethically  dangerous  that  it  did  not  commend 
itself  to  the  mass,  and  soon  ceased  to  exist  as  a  separate  organi- 
zation, though  its  echoes  long  continued  to  be  heard  in  certain 
Christian  groups.1 

1113.  Cults  of  Mithra  and  Isis.  The  Mithraic  communities 
were  wholly  voluntary  associations,  without  distinctions  of  birth 
or  social  position,  were  recognized  by  the  State,  but  received  no 
pecuniary  aid  from  it  and  had  no  official  connection  with  it.  Per- 
haps this  independence  helped  to  nourish  the  enthusiasm  that 
carried  Mithraism  from  one  end  of  the  Roman  Empire  to  the 
other ;    a  church  appears  to  flourish  most  on  the  religious   side 

1  Harnack,  Dogmengeschichte ;  articles  in  Herzog-Hauck,  Real-Encyklof>adie,  and 
Jewish  Encyclopedia  ;  Mansel,  The  Gnostic  Heresies. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION 


549 


when  it  confines  itself  to  religion.  A  more  important  fact  was 
that  Mithraism  was  a  religion  of  redemption.  It  docs  not  appear 
that  there  was  any  general  organization  of  the  Mithraic  associa- 
tions ;  each  of  these  was  local,  probably  small,  had  its  own  set  of 
officers,  and  managed  its  own  affairs.1  It  was  thus  free  from  some 
of  the  perils  that  beset  Christianity.  It  is  not  improbable  that  some 
of  its  liturgical  forms  were  adopted  by  the  Christian  Church,  but  it 
seems  itself  not  to  have  borrowed  from  the  latter.  Its  weakness 
was  its  semibarbarous  ritual  and  its  polytheism ;  it  yielded  of 
necessity  to  the  simpler  and  loftier  forms  of  Christianity. 

1114.  The  cult  of  Isis,  in  spite  of  its  ethically  high  character 
and  its  impressive  ceremonies  of  initiation  (as  described  by  Apu- 
leius  2),  did  not  give  rise  to  associations  like  the  Mithraic.  It  be- 
longs to  the  mysteries,  but  had  not  their  organization  of  meetings 
and  ritual,  had  no  brotherhoods  (except  those  whose  bond  of  union 
was  devotion  to  this  cult)  and  no  general  organization  embracing 
the  Empire.  The  reason  for  its  failure  in  this  regard  appears  to 
lie  in  its  lack  of  definiteness  in  certain  important  points  :  it  was  in 
a  sense  monotheistic,  since  the  goddess  was  called  the  supreme 
controller  of  the  world  of  external  nature  and  of  men,  but  its 
monotheism  was  clouded  by  its  connection  with  the  old  national 
cults  and  by  current  theological  speculations  — -  for  Apuleius,  it 
would  seem,  Isis  was  rather  a  name  for  a  vague  Power  in  nature 
than  for  a  well-defined  divine  person,  and  particularly  it  offered 
no  clear  picture  of  the  future  and  no  clear  hope  of  moral  redemp- 
tion, two  things  that  were  then  necessary  to  the  success  of  any 
system  that  aspired  to  supplant  the  popular  faiths.3  Such  lacks 
as  these  appear  in  the  cult  of  Sarapis  also,  which  never  developed 
the  characteristics  of  a  church. 

1115.  Manichceism.  Of  the  religious  movements  that  sprang 
from  the  contact  of  Christianity  with  the  East  Manichaeism  was 
the  most  important  on  account  of  its  great  vitality.  It  possessed 
all  the  elements  of  a  church,  voluntary  membership,  independence 
of  the  State  (it  was  always  persecuted  by  the  State),  and  the  claim 

1  Cumont,  Textes  et  monuments  and  The  Mysteries  of  Mithra. 

2  Metamorphoses,  chap.  xi.  3  cf.  article  "  Isis  "  in  Roscher's  Lexikon. 


550     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

to  a  divine  revelation  of  salvation.  Like  Buddhism,  Jainism,  and 
Christianity,  it  owed  its  origin  to  a  single  founder.  Its  plan  of  or- 
ganization and  its  ethical  standards  were  good.  Like  Mithraism 
its  basis  was  Persian  (its  rise  was  synchronous  with  the  Sassanian 
revival  of  Mazdaism),  but  the  two  went  different  ways  :  the  former 
laid  stress  on  mystical  ceremonies,  the  latter  on  moral  and  theo- 
logical conceptions.  The  vogue  that  Manichaeism  enjoyed  was  due, 
apparently,  to  its  eclectic  character :  adopting  the  Persian  dualism, 
it  modified  and  expounded  this  by  a  Gnostic  doctrine  of  aeons, 
which  was  intended  to  harmonize  the  goodness  of  God  and  the 
existence  of  evil,  and  it  added  the  figure  of  the  highest  aeon,  Christ, 
the  savior  of  men.  On  the  other  hand,  its  involved  and  fantastic 
machinery  led  to  its  downfall. 

1116.  Two  theocratic  bodies  that  failed  to  reach  the  full  church 
form  are  Islam  and  the  Peruvian  cult  of  the  sun.  The  Islamic  con- 
stitution is  based  on  a  sacred  book,  its  theology  and  its  form  of 
public  worship  are  borrowed  from  Christianity  and  Judaism,  its 
private  worship  is  individualistic,  and  it  offers  paradise  to  the 
faithful.  But  Islam  is  in  essence  a  State  religion  rather  than  a 
church.  Its  populations  belong  to  it  by  descent ;  its  head  is  the 
Calif  (now  the  Sultan  of  Turkey).  Its  diffusion,  though  due  in 
certain  cases  to  the  superiority  of  its  ideas  and  the  simplicity  of 
its  customs,1  has  yet  come  largely  (as  in  Egypt,  Syria  and  Palestine, 
Persia,  and  North  Africa)  from  social  and  political  pressure  —  in 
some  cases  it  has  been  adopted  by  whole  nations  at  a  blow; 
Mohammed  forced  all  the  people  of  Arabia  to  accept  it.  Indi- 
vidual choice  recedes  into  the  background,  except  (as  in  Judaism)  in 
the  case  of  proselytes.  Its  conception  of  sin  and  salvation  are  largely 
external.  It  bears  a  great  resemblance  to  the  Judaism  of  the  Has- 
monean  dynasty,  a  national  cult  with  a  priest-sovereign  at  its  head. 

Within  Islam  there  have  arisen  organizations  that  imitate  the 
form  of  a  church  in  certain  respects;  such  were  the  Morabits 
(Almoravides)   and    the    Mohads   (Almohades),2   whose    bond    of 

1  Cf.  A.  G.  Leonard,  I  slam,  her  Moral  and  Spiritual  Value. 

2  A.  Miiller,  Islam,  ii,  614  ff. ;  Coppee,  Conquest  of  Spain;  Dozy,  Histoirc  des 
musulmans  en  Espagne  ;  Stanley  Lane-Poole,  Story  of  the  Moors  in  Spain. 


SOCIAL  DEI  ELOPMENT  ( )F  RELIGION  5  5  I 

union  was  in  part  theological,  and  such  arc  the  great  fraternities 
in  Africa  and  Asia,  which  arc  devoted,  among  other  things,  to 
religious  work,  and  have  elaborate  organizations  and  ceremonies 
of  reception.1  But  these  arc  all  largely  political  and  military.  The 
Ismalic  movement  (from  ca.  900  a.d.  on),  the  central  doctrine  of 
which  was  the  incarnation  of  God  in  certain  men  and  finally  in 
the  Mahdi,  was  not  Islamic  and  not  Semitic;  with  a  nominal 
acceptance  of  the  Koran,  it  was  in  fact  a  mixture  of  Persian  and 
Buddhistic  ideas;  from  it  came  the  Fatimide  califate  of  Egypt, 
and  from  this  (ca.  1000  a.d.)  the  Druse  sect,  which  began  as  a 
church,  but  has  become  merely  a  local  religion.2 

1117.  It  was  in  Peru  that  the  most  thoroughgoing  identification 
of  religion  with  the  State  was  effected.3  In  the  old  national  religions 
the  individual  followed  the  custom  of  his  country;  in  Peru  the 
State,  in  the  person  of  the  Inca,  determined  every  person's  reli- 
gious position  and  duties.  If  Islam  resembles  Maccabean  Judaism, 
the  Peruvian  organization  resembled  some  forms  of  Medieval  Chris- 
tianity. The  Inca  was  a  Pope,  only  with  more  power  than  the 
Christian  Pope,  since  he  acted  on  every  individual.  The  general 
ethical  standard  was  good,  in  spite  of  some  survivals  of  savagery, 
but  there  was  a  complete  negation  of  individual  freedom  in  religion.4 

1118.  Modern  Hindu  sects.  The  vast  multiplication  of  sects  in 
India  is  an  indication  of  activity  of  religious  thought ; 5  the  move- 
ment has  been  in  general  toward  the  formation  of  voluntary  asso- 
ciations, though  with  many  variations  and  modifications.  The 
reform  sects,  while  they  may  be  considered  as  developments  out 
of  the  old  systems,  Vedic,  givaic,  Vishnuic  (Krishnaic),  have  been 

1  Of  these  fraternities  the  largest  and  most  powerful  is  the  Senussi  of  North 
Africa,  a  splendidly  organized  body  with  a  central  administration  clothed  with  abso- 
lute authority ;  see  Depont  and  Coppolani,  Les  confreries  religieuses  musulmanes. 

2  S.  de  Sacy,  Expose  dc  la  religion  ties  Druses;  J.  Wortabet,  Researches  into  (he 
Religions  of  Syria ;  C.  H.  Churchill.  Ten  Years'  Residence  in  .1ft.  Lebanon. 

3  Cf.  Dr.  Thomas  Arnold's  ideal,  the  identification  of  Church  and  State  (A.  P. 
Stanley,  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Thomas  Arnold). 

4  Payne,  History  of  the  New  World  called  America  :  Markham,  Rites  and  Laics 
of  the  /neas;  Prescott,  Conquest  of  Peru,  bk.  i.  chap.  iii. 

5  On  India's  fertility  in  the  production  of  religions  cf.  Bloomfield,  Religion  of  the 
Veda,  p.  2  ff . 


552     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

affected  by  foreign  influence,  Mohammedan  or  Christian.  Of  the 
organizations  influenced  by  Islam  (followers  of  Kabir  and  Dadu) 
several  have  produced  societies  that  for  a  time  had  the  form  of  a 
church,  with  voluntary  membership  and  a  plan  of  salvation ;  but 
it  has  been  hard  for  them  to  overcome  the  national  tendencies  to 
idolatry  and  to  deification  of  founder  or  teacher.  The  Sikhs,  be- 
ginning (in  the  fifteenth  century)  as  a  purely  religious  body,  became, 
by  the  eighteenth  century,  a  powerful  political  and  military  organi- 
zation. Along  with  theological  reform  these  sects  have  been  con- 
stantly in  danger  of  reverting  more  or  less  closely  to  the  old  national 
type,  and  their  church  form  has  been  only  feebly  effective. 

1119.  The  case  has  been  different  with  the  movements  induced 
by  contact  with  Christian  forms  of  belief.  The  organizations  founded 
or  carried  on  by  Rammohun  Roy1  (early  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century)  and  later  by  Chunder  Sen,2  Mozoomdar,  and  others  are 
churches  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word,  and,  notwithstanding  occa- 
sional individual  lapses  into  old  Hindu  ideas,  have  so  far  maintained 
this  character;  but  they  are  not  wholly  native  creations,  and  it 
remains  to  be  seen  what  their  outcome  will  be.3 

1120.  Babism  and  Bahaism*  the  transformation  of  Babism 
effected  by  Bahau'llah,  is  a  church  in  all  essential  points,  though 
its  organization  consists  merely  in  the  devotion  of  its  adherents  to 
the  teaching  and  the  person  of  its  founder ;  it  has  no  clergy,  no 
religious  ceremonial,  no  public  prayers,  no  connection  with  any 
civil  government,  but  its  dogma  is  well-defined  and  it  offers  eternal 
salvation  to  its  adherents.  Its  chief  source  of  inspiration  is  the  be- 
lief that  its  founder  was  an  incarnation  of  God,  the  Manifestation 

1  This  organization  was  first  called  the  "  Brahma-Samaj  "  (the  Church  of  Brahma), 
later  the  "  Adi-Samaj  "  (the  First  Church).  2  The  Brahma-Samaj. 

3  There  are  other  theistic  bodies  in  India.  The  Arya-Samaj  (Aryan  Church)  de- 
rives its  doctrines  (monotheism  and  other)  from  the  Veda  (necessarily  by  a  forced 
interpretation)  ;  it  is  a  sort  of  protest  against  foreign  (Christian)  influence.  See  arti- 
cles "  Arya  Samaj  "  and  "  Brahma  Samaj  "  in  Hastings,  Encyclopedia  of  Religion 
and  Ethics. 

4  Gobineau,  Les  religions  ct  les  philosophies  dans  VAsie  centralc  ;  R.  G.  Browne, 
The  Episode  of  the  Bab  and  The  New  Histoiy  of  the  Bab ;  article  "  Bab^  Babis  " 
in  Hastings,  op.  cit. ;  article  "  Bahaism  "  in  the  Nonveau  Larousse,  Supplement ;  Some 
Answered  Questions,  translated  by  Laura  C.  Burney  (exposition  of  the  doctrine  by 
the  son  of  the  Bahaist  founder). 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  553 

of  God  announced  by  his  forerunner,  the  Bab  (the  "  Gate  "  to  ( iod 
and  truth).  That  its  lack  of  official  ministers  and  public  communal 
religious  services  is  no  bar  to  its  effectiveness  is  shown  by  the 
favor  it  has  met  with  not  only  in  Persia  and  other  parts  of  Asia 
but  also  in  Europe  and  America.  Possibly  its  success  is  due  in 
part  to  its  eclectic  character  and  its  claim  to  universality  (it  seeks 
to  embrace  and  unite  Buddhism,  Hinduism,  Zoroastrianism,  Juda- 
ism, and  Christianity)  as  well  as  to  the  simplicity  of  its  dogma 
(theism  and  immortality)  and  its  admirable  humanitarian  spirit.1 

Monachism 

1121.  An  effective  outgrowth  from  the  church  is  the  monastic 
system,  which  is  an  ecclesia  in  ecclesia,  emphasizing  and  extending 
certain  features  of  the  parent  organization.2  It  sprang  from  a 
dualistic  conception,  the  assumption  of  a  relation  of  incompatibility 
or  antagonism  between  God  and  the  world  —  a  feeling  whose 
germ  appears  in  savage  life  (in  taboos  and  other  forms).  It  has 
assumed  definite  shape  only  in  the  higher  religions  and  not  in  all 
of  these  —  it  is  foreign  to  Semitic,  Persian,  Chinese,  and  Greek3 
peoples.  Austerity  there  has  been  and  abstention  from  certain 
things  but  not  with  the  aim  of  ministering  to  spiritual  life.4 

1122.  The  birthplace  of  monachism  proper  was  India.  In  the 
Brahmanic  scheme  the  highest  sanctity  and  the  most  brilliant  pros- 
pects attached  to  the  man  who  forsook  the  life  of  men  and  devoted 
himself  to  solitary  meditation  in  the  forest.5  The  seclusion  was 
individual  —  the  man  was  an  eremite.  The  organization  into  com- 
munities was  made  by  Buddha6  and,  apparently  contemporaneously, 
by  Mahavira,  the  founder  of  Jainism.    It  is  this  organization  that 

1  Babism  is  fairly  well  represented  in  Persia  at  the  present  day  ;  see  R.  G.  Browne. 

2  Cf.  articles  in  Herzog-Hauck,  Real-Encyklopddie  ;  McClintock  and  Strong,  Bibli- 
cal Cyclopedia  \  New  Schaff-Herzog  Encyclopedia  of  Religious  Knowledge. 

3  On  the  community  founded  by  Pythagoras  see  the  histories  of  philosophy;  it 
appears  to  have  embodied  a  suggestion  of  monastic  life,  but  its  origin  is  uncertain. 

4  The  Hebrew  Nazirite  vow,  for  example,  was  merely  a  consecration  of  a  part  of 
the  body  to  the  deity  with  the  observance  of  old  nomadic  customs  of  food  and  dwell- 
ings. 5  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  Index,  s.v.  Monks. 

6  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhism,  chap.  vi. 


554     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

has  made  the  institution  a  power  in  religious  history.  Buddha's 
associations  were  open  to  all,  without  distinction  of  social  position 
or  sex.  From  India  monachism  passed  into  all  the  lands  that  were 
occupied  by  Buddhism. 

1123.  In  Egypt  under  the  Ptolemies  there  arose  a  sort  of  mo- 
nastic life  :  after  the  cult  of  Sarapis  was  established  men  wishing  to 
devote  themselves  to  religious  meditation  would  go  to  the  Sarapeum 
and  shut  themselves  up  in  cells.1  It  is,  however,  not  clear  that 
there  was  an  organization  or  any  sort  of  communal  life  in  connec- 
tion with  these  gatherings.  There  is  no  evidence  of  foreign  influ- 
ence beyond  a  possible  suggestion  from  the  fact  that  Sarapis  was 
a  foreign  deity  and  his  cult  may  have  imported  foreign  ideas  into 
Egypt ;  but  he  was  completely  domiciled  in  his  new  abode,  was 
identified  by  the  Greeks  with  their  Zeus  and  by  the  Egyptians  (by 
a  popular  etymology)  with  their  Osir-Apis ;  there  was  nothing 
foreign  in  his  cult,  and  the  claim,  sometimes  made,  for  Buddhistic 
influence  (through  embassies  sent  by  Asoka  to  Greek  kings)  has 
no  definite  historical  foundation.2  Possibly  Greek  (Pythagorean) 
influence  is  to  be  recognized,3  but  it  cannot  be  considered  strange 
that  a  practice  of  this  sort  should  arise  independently  in  Egypt  at 
a  time  when  a  practical  monolatry  with  a  good  ethical  conception 
of  the  deity  might  dispose  some  men  to  solitary  reflection. 

1124.  The  Egyptian  Therapeutae,  the  "  Servants"  of  God,  de- 
scribed by  Philo,4  resemble  these  Sarapis  monks  in  certain  respects, 
particularly  in  their  habit  of  contemplation.  Their  kernel,  however, 
was  Jewish  —  they  had  the  Jewish  Scriptures  and  observed  the 
seventh  day  of  the  week.  On  this  Jewish  substratum  was  imposed 
Greek  thought ;  they  adopted  the  Alexandrian  allegorizing  inter- 
pretation of  the  Scriptures,  and  Philo  includes  them  in  that  group 
of  persons  who  found  it  desirable  to  withdraw  from  the  common 

1  Cf.  H.  Weingarten,  Ursprung  des  M'dnchihums,  cited  with  approval  by  Meyer, 
Geschichtc  des  Altai  Aegyptens,  p.  401  ;  cf.  Lehmann-Haupt,  in  Roscher's  Lexikou, 
article  "  Sarapis,"  col.  362  ff. 

2  Cf.  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  chap,  xix  ;  J.  Estlin  Carpenter,  "  Buddhist  and 
Christian  Parallels"  in  Studies  in  the  History  of  Religions  presented  to  C.  H.  Toy. 

3  Against  this  view  see  Breasted,  History  of  Egypt,  p.  57S  ff. 

4  De  Vita  Contcmplativa ;  see  the  edition  of  F.  C.  Conybeare.  The  work  is  prob- 
ably to  be  considered  genuine. 


SOC  7. 1 L  DEVELOPMENT  OE  RELIGK  W  555 

life  of  men  in  order  to  cultivate  philosophical  and  ethical  thought. 
Six  days  they  lived  each  by  himself  ;  on  the  seventh  day  they  came 
together  for  a  religious  service.  Women  as  well  as  men  were  ad- 
mitted into  the  association,  but  the  place  of  general  meeting  had  two 
divisions,  one  for  men,  the  other  for  women.  The  date  of  the  rise  of 
the  sect  is  uncertain,  but  it  must  probably  be  put  in  the  Ptolemaic  pe- 
riod. Their  monastic  organization  must  be  referred  to  some  current 
practice,  Greek  or  Egyptian,  or  to  a  blending  of  various  lines ;  the 
details  of  their  history  are  too  sparse  to  build  on  with  definiteness. 
1125.  The  similar  sect  of  the  Essenes,  or  Essaei,  which  was  con- 
fined to  Palestine,  is  better  known.1  The  Jewish  features  in  their 
system  are :  acceptance  of  the  Jewish  Scriptures,  observance  of 
the  Sabbath,  recognition  of  the  temple  by  sending  unbloody  offer- 
ings, regard  for  ceremonial  purity.  Non-Jewish  features  are  :  re- 
jection of  marriage,  trade  and  (according  to  Philo)  animal  sacrifice, 
turning  to  the  sun  in  prayer  (or,  according  to  Josephus,  praying 
to  the  sun),  the  teaching  that  the  soul,  when  set  free  from  the 
body,  passes,  if  good,  to  a  delightful  region  across  the  ocean,  and, 
if  bad,  to  a  dark  den  of  ceaseless  punishment.  Foreign  influence 
in  these  latter  practices  and  beliefs  is  obvious,  but  its  precise  source 
is  uncertain.  There  are  suggestions  of  Pythagoreanism  and  pos- 
sibly of  Zoroastrianism  ;  2  it  can  only  be  said  that  various  ideas 
were  in  the  air  of  Palestine,  and  that  the  Essene  formulation  was 
effected  under  conditions  and  at  a  time  not  known  to  us.3  The 
monastic  constitution  was  clearly  of  foreign  (non-Jewish)  origin. 
Essenism  seems  not  to  have  affected  the  Jewish  religious  ideas  of 
the  time.  Jesus,  though  he  may  have  taken  from  it  the  prohibition 
of  swearing  and  possibly  one  or  two  other  points,  was  in  the  main 
and  on  all  important  points  (except  ethical  teaching,  which  was 
largely  common  property)  the  reverse  of  what  Essenism  stood  for. 

1  Philo,  Quod  omnis  probus  liber;  Pliny,  Historia  Naturalis,  v,  17;  Josephus, 
Antiquities,  xviii,  1,  and  War,  ii,  8;  Schurer,  The  Jewish  People  in  Ike  Time  of 
Jesus  Christ  (Eng.  tr.),  II,  ii,  188  ff.  (and  the  bibliography  there  given)  ;  articles  in 
Cheyne,  Encyclopaedia  Biblica,  and  Hastings,  Dictionary  of  the  Bible. 

2  From  the  geographical  and  historical  conditions  a  Pythagorean  origin  (perhaps 
indirect)  seems  the  more  probable. 

3  The  earliest  appearance  of  an  Essene  is  in  the  latter  part  of  the  second  cen- 
tury B.C.  (Josephus,  Antiquities,  xiii,  11,  §  2). 


556     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

1126.  Christian  monachism,  which  appeared  first  in  eremitic 
form  (second  century)  and  later  in  organized  communal  form, 
may  have  been  an  independent  creation  of  Christian  piety  ;  but 
it  is  also  possible  that  it  was  suggested  by  the  traditions  of  its 
birthplace,  Egypt ; 1  definite  data  on  this  point  are  lacking.  What- 
ever its  origin,  it  speedily  overran  the  Christian  world,  in  which  it 
has  maintained  itself  up  to  the  present  day.'2 

1127.  Monachism  has  rendered  valuable  aid  to  Buddhism  and 
Christianity  by  training  men  and  women,  laity  and  clergy,  who 
were  devoted  to  the  forms  of  religion  represented  by  these  organi- 
zations. It  has  done  a  higher  service  by  establishing  communities 
that  have  often  been  beacon  lights,  representing,  particularly  in 
times  of  popular  ignorance,  ideals  of  conduct.  Such  communities 
have  often  been  homes  of  beneficence  and  learning.  They  have, 
on  the  other  hand,  injured  religion  by  severing  it  from  ordinary 
life.  By  assuming  that  the  secluded  life  was  holier  than  that  of 
the  world  they  have  tended  to  put  a  stigma  of  unholiness  on  the 
latter.  Buddhism  taught  that  only  the  monk  could  attain  the  high- 
est sanctity  and  receive  the  highest  reward,  and  such  has  generally 
been  the  teaching  in  those  forms  of  Christianity  in  which  mona- 
chism exists.  Monasteries  and  convents,  further,  have  in  many 
cases  become  rich  in  this  world's  goods  —  a  favorite  form  of  de- 
votion has  been  to  build  and  endow  or  aid  such  communities  (often 
with  the  belief  that  this  atoned  for  sin) ;  with  wealth  has  come 
worldlymindedness  and  corruption  of  morals.  Numerous  examples 
of  such  decadence  occur  in  Buddhistic  and  Christian  history.  There 
are,  however,  many  examples  of  holy  monastic  living.  It  is  true  in 
general  of  these  institutions,  as  of  all  others,  that  when  moral  super- 
vision of  them  is  exercised  by  society  the  possibilities  of  moral  decline 
are  greatly  diminished  ;  in  an  enlightened  age  they  may  be  assumed 
to  be  generally  exemplary.  Their  specifically  useful  role  in  the  de- 
velopment of  religion,  as  refuges  in  times  of  turbulence  and  centers 
of  charity  and  thought,  belongs  to  an  imperfectly  organized  form  of 
society ;  with  the  growth  of  enlightenment  they  tend  to  disappear. 

1  Roscher,  Lexikon,  article  ''  Sarapis,"  col.  362  f. 

2  See  references  given  above  in  §  1121,  note. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  557 

Sacred  Books 

1128.  All  churches  and  all  bodies  approaching  nearly  the  church- 
form  have  writings  that  embody  their  beliefs  and  are  regarded  as 
sacred.  Such  sacred  Scriptures  necessarily  grow  up  with  the  organ- 
izations to  which  they  belong,  since  these  latter  originate  in  literary 
periods  and  claim  divine  authorship.  Great  religious  communities 
naturally  produce  a  large  number  of  such  books,  and  at  some  time 
it  becomes  necessary  (from  the  growth  of  heresies  or  rivals)  to  sift 
the  whole  mass  and  decide  which  works  are  to  be  considered  to 
have  permanent  divine  authority;  the  process  of  sifting  is  per- 
formed in  each  case  by  its  community  under  the  guidance  of 
leading  men,  and  the  result  is  a  canon  of  sacred  Scriptures.  Such 
canons  are  found  in  Buddhism,  Judaism,  ■Zoroastrianism,  Chris- 
tianity, and  Islam,  and  in  minor  bodies  like  the  Essenes,  Mormons, 
and  others,  but  not  among  the  Chinese,  Greeks,  and  Romans ; 
Brahmanism  occupies  a  middle  ground  —  it  regards  the  Veda  and 
the  accessory  books  as  entitled  to  great  reverence,  but  has  never 
drawn  the  line  between  sacred  and  nonsacred  writings  so  sharply 
as  has  been  done  in  the  group  named  above. 

1129.  While  the  general  method  of  fixing  the  canons  has  been 
the  same  everywhere,  the  details  of  the  process  have  differed  in 
different  lands.  In  India  the  canon  of  Southern  Buddhism  (ac- 
knowledged formerly  in  India  and  now  in  Ceylon,  Burma,  and 
Siam)  was  settled  in  a  series  of  councils  coming  down  to  the  middle 
of  the  third  century  B.C.  or  later  (several  centuries  after  the  death 
of  Buddha),  the  object  being  to  define  the  faith  against  heresies; 
probably  the  reports  of  the  Master's  discourses  (he  left  no  writings) 
were  examined,  and  those  declared  authentic  were  brought  together, 
but  the  date  of  the  final  settlement  of  the  canon  is  not  certain,  and 
the  sacred  books  were  not  reduced  to  writing  till  the  first  century 
B.C.  The  canon  of  Northern  Buddhism  (accepted  in  Tibet,  Mon- 
golia, Manchuria,  China,  Japan)  is  less  definite  and  was  fixed  later.1 

1130.  The  development  of  the  Jewish  canon  extended  over  a 
long  period,  and  its  history  in  outline  is  well  known.    While  the 

1  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhism]  R.  S.  Copleston,  Buddhism. 


558       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

discourses  of  the  prophets  were  regarded  with  respect  as  giving 
divine  revelations,  there  is  no  record  of  the  recognition  of  an 
authoritative  book  before  the  fifth  century-  B.C.,  when  a  sacred 
law  was  proclaimed  by  Nehemiah  and  Ezra.1  Even  then  there 
seems  to  have  been  no  definite  collection  of  writings.  The  Law 
was  the  national  religious  constitution,  and  in  process  of  time 
prophetic  books  and  others  came  to  be  regarded  with  reverence. 
The  translator  of  Ben-Sira  (Ecclesiasticus)  into  Greek  (132  B.C.) 
mentions  three  groups  of  national  books  (the  law,  the  prophets, 
'and  "  other  writings  "),  but  does  not  speak  of  them  as  divinely 
inspired.  But  the  intimate  contact  with  the  Greek  world,  and 
especially  the  Maccabean  struggle,  deepened  the  Palestinian  Jew- 
ish reverence  for  the  national  literature.  A  process  of  sifting  and 
defining,  at  first  unofficial,  began,  and  this  work  naturally  passed, 
with  the  growth  of  legal  learning,  into  the  hands  of  leading  doctors 
of  law.  Early  in  the  first  century  of  our  era  public  opinion  in 
Palestine  had  taken  shape  ;  the  standard  established  was  a  local 
national  one  —  books  illustrating  the  national  history  and  teachings, 
and  written  in  Hebrew,  were  accepted  (so,  for  example,  the  book 
of  Esther,  which  is  nonreligious  but  national),  others  (as  the 
Wisdom  of  Solomon)  were  rejected.  For  various  reasons  certain 
books  (Ezekiel,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes,  Song  of  Songs)  remained 
doubtful.  After  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  the  increasing  literary 
feeling,  the  establishment  of  rabbinical  schools,  and  the  necessity 
of  defining  the  Jewish  position  against  growing  Christianity  and 
other  heresies  led  to  definite  action2  —  in  the  Synod  of  Jamnia 
(about  100  a.d.)  the  Palestinian  canon,  after  hot  debates,  was 
finally  settled  in  the  form  in  which  the  Hebrew  Old  Testament 
now  appears.  Alexandrian  Judaism  had  a  different  standard  and 
accepted,  in  addition  to  the  Palestinian  collection,  a  group  of  books 
(the  Apocrypha)  that  the  Palestinians  rejected.  Certain  other  books 
(as  the  various  Enoch  apocalypses)  were  not  accepted  by  either 

1  Ezekiel,  early  in  the  sixth  century,  and  Haggai  and  Zechariah  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  century,  show  no  consciousness  of  the  existence  of  authoritative  writings. 

2  Cf.  G.  F.  Moore,  "The  Definition  of  the  Jewish  Canon  and  the  Repudiation 
of  Christian  Scriptures  "  in  Essays  in  Modem  Theology  and  Related  Subjects  .  .  . 
Testimonial  to  C.  A.  Briggs. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  559 

Jewish  body,  though  they  were  highly  esteemed.  Both  canons 
were  slow  growths  of  national  feeling  —  books  were  chosen  that 
accorded  with  prevailing  ideas  ;  but  it  is  now  impossible  to  recover 
all  the  critical  views  that  determined  the  results.1 

1131.  Young  ( Christianity,  at  first  a  Jewish  body,  naturally  adopted 
the  Jewish  canons,  but  in  the  course  of  a  century  produced  a  con- 
siderable normative  literature  of  its  own.  The  Christian  canon  was 
settled  much  in  the  same  way  as  the  Jewish.  There  was  doubt 
about  certain  books,  there  were  differences  of  opinion  in  different 
quarters,  the  growth  of  heresies  called  for  the  establishment  of  a 
definite  standard,  and  a  final  decision  was  reached  in  the  West  and 
announced  toward  the  end  of  the  fifth  century  by  Pope  Gelasius ; 
in  the  East  the  action  was  less  definite,  but  the  conclusion  was 
about  the  same.  The  books  of  the  Alexandrian  canon  that  were 
rejected  by  the  Palestinians  were  largely  used  by  early  Christian 
writers,  by  whom  some  of  them  are  constantly  cited  as  sacred 
Scripture,  for  they  were  found  in  the  Greek  translation  of  the  Old 
Testament  (the  Septuagint),  which  was  the  Old  Testament  text 
used  by  Christians.  So  great  was  their  popularity  that  Jerome  was 
led,  against  his  judgment,  to  include  them  in  his  translation  (the 
Latin  Vulgate),  and  by  the  Council  of  Trent  (1546)  they  were 
indorsed  as  deuterocanonical,  and  are  still  so  regarded  in  the 
Roman  Church.  In  the  Creek  Church  they  were  accepted  as 
canonical  in  the  beginning  and  up  to  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  but  are  now,  it  would  seem,  looked  on  only  as 
useful  for  the  instruction  of  catechumens.'2  By  Protestants  their 
canonical  authority  is  generally  denied,  though  up  to  the  early  part 
of  the  nineteenth  century  they  were  commonly  printed  in  editions 
of  the  Bible  ;  the  Articles  of  the  Church  of  England  characterize 
them  as  instructive  but  not  of  authority  for  doctrine,  and  lessons 
from  them  now  appear  in  the  Lectionary  of  the  Church.8 

1  G.   Wildeboer,  Het    Onstaan   ran   den   Kanon  des   Oudcn    Verbonds;    II.   E. 

Ryle,  Canon  of  the  Old  Testament  ;  articles  "  Canon "  in  Encyclopaedia  Biblica, 
"  Bible  Canon"  in  Jewish  Encyclopedia,  "  Kanon  des  Alten  Testaments"  in  llerzog- 
Hauck,  Real-Encyklopddie.  2  See  the  Longer  Catechism  of  Philaret,  r8  $9. 

8  T.  Zahn,  Geschichte  des  neutestamentlichen  /Canons;  E.  C.  Moore,  The  New 
Testament  in  the  Christian  Church\   article  ''Canon'*  in  Encyclopaedia  Biblica. 


560     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

1132.  The  history  of  the  collection  of  the  Zoroastrian  sacred 
books  is  involved  in  obscurity.  A  late  tradition  was  that  many 
such  writings  were  destroyed  by  Alexander.  This  points  to  a  be- 
lief that  the  existing  writings  were  later  than  the  fall  of  the  old 
Persian  empire.  When  a  beginning  was  made  of  committing  Zoro- 
astrian material  to  writing  is  uncertain.  In  the  first  century  of 
our  era  Pliny  had  heard  of  verses  ascribed  to  Zoroaster,1  and,  as 
Mazdean  books  were  in  existence  at  the  rise  of  the  Sassanian 
dynasty,  the  probability  seems  to  be  that  the  reduction  to  writing 
had  then  been  going  on  for  a  considerable  time  —  how  long  it  is 
impossible  to  say.  The  material  grew  with  the  development  of  the 
people  and  was  ascribed  to  Zoroaster  2  (as  the  Jews  ascribed  their 
legal  material  to  Moses).  An  official  collection  of  sacred  writings 
was  made  in  the  fourth  century  of  our  era  —  the  exact  extent  of 
this  collection  and  the  principle  that  governed  its  formation  are  not 
clear.  It  may  be  surmised  that  the  appearance  of  strange  teachings, 
such  as  that  of  Mani,  and  the  spread  of  Christianity  eastward, 
forced  on  the  leaders  the  task  of  denning  the  orthodox  faith.3  In 
making  their  collection  they  would  naturally  take  only  such  writings 
as  were  in  accord  with  the  spirit  of  the  religion  of  their  time.  Thus 
they  established  (in  the  fourth  century)  a  body  of  sacred  writings ; 
it  does  not  follow  that  no  additions  were  later  made  to  the  canon 
—  how  far  it  is  represented  in  the  present  Avesta  it  may  be  diffi- 
cult to  say. 

1133.  The  history  of  the  Islamic  canon  is  simple.  The  Koran 
enjoys  the  distinction  of  being  the  only  sacred  canon  produced  by 
one  man.  There  never  was  any  question  of  its  sacredness,  and 
there  has  been  hardly  any  question  of  its  content.  Mohammed's 
discourses  were  taken  down  by  his  followers  in  his  lifetime,  were 
put  into  shape  just  after  his  death,  the  collection  was  revised  a 
few  years  later  (under  the  Calif  Othman),  has  since  been  univer- 
sally accepted  in  the  Moslem  world  as  the  authoritative  divinely 
given  standard  of  religious  truth,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt 

1  Historia  Naturalis,  xxx,  chap,  i,  §  2. 

2  The  question  whether  any  of  this  material  went  back  to  Zoroaster  must  here  be 
left  undecided.  3  Spiegel,  Eranischc  Alterthumskunde,  iii,  778  ff. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OE  RELIGION  561 

that  it  contains  substantially  all  the  teaching  of  the  Prophet  and 
only  his  teaching.  The  scribe  Zayd,  who  acted  as  editor,  may  have 
altered  or  inserted  a  word  here  and  there,  but  he  would  not  have 
dared  to  change  the  thought.  The  traditions  of  extra-Koranic 
sayings  ascribed  to  Mohammed  (the  haditJi),  so  far  as  they  may 
be  supposed  to  be  genuine  utterances  of  his  (most  of  them  are 
spurious),  do  not  add  anything  to  his  doctrine.1 

1134.  As  to  the  influence  of  sacred  books  on  religion,  it  is 
obvious,  in  the  first  place,  that  they  are  always  formulations  of 
the  ideas  of  the  places  and  times  in  which  they  originate,  and  that 
they  vary  in  tone  and  in  importance  accordingly.  It  is  true,  how- 
ever, that  the  canonical  collections  of  the  great  religions,  having 
arisen  in  enlightened  circles,  all  have,  along  with  local  (social, 
mythological,  eschatological)  features,  generally  high  ethical  and 
spiritually  religious  standards.  For  this  reason  they  have  always 
been,  as  religious  and  ethical  guides  and  sources  of  inspiration, 
important  factors  in  the  development  of  civilization  as  well  as  in 
the  life  of  the  churches.  Their  teachings,  generally  representing 
the  ideas  of  gifted  men  formulated  under  the  pressure  of  great 
religious  enthusiasm,  have  perpetuated  high  standards,  holding 
them  up  in  times  of  decadence  and  corruption  and  clouded  moral 
vision. 

1135.  A  specially  noteworthy  point  in  their  influence  is  their  role 
of  household  monitors  and  comforters.  As  religious  manuals,  in- 
vested with  divine  authority,  they  have  found  their  way  into  families 
and  other  small  and  intimate  circles,  have  been  children's  textbooks 
and  parents'  guides,  and  thus  have  entered  in  an  extraordinary 
way  into  individual  life.  They  have  reached  wider  circles  through 
expositions  and  discourses  held  in  connection  with  stated  religious 
services.  They  have  been  used  as  textbooks  in  schools,  and  in 
general  have  been  the  most  widely  read  books  in  the  world.  They 
have  thus  been  unifying  forces,  each  in  its  special  community. 

Their  influence,  further,  has  not  been  confined  to  purely  religious 
life.  Being  regarded  as  containing  the  final  truth,  they  have  been 
objects  of  study  and  occasions  of  the  development  of  learning.   The 

1  Noldeke,  Sketches  from  Eastern  Hisiojy  (Eng.  tr.),  p.  25  ff. 


562      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

necessity  of  explaining  their  use  of  words  and  grammatical  con- 
structions, their  historical  and  geographical  statements  and  views, 
their  pictures  and  theories  of  social  life,  their  psychology  and  phi- 
losophy, their  theistic  and  eschatological  ideas,  have  led  to  investi- 
gations of  all  these  subjects.  Early  Moslem  science  sprang  from 
the  study  of  the  Koran,  and  the  later  Moslem  discussions  of  free- 
will, immortality  and  other  points  were  called  forth  by  Koranic 
statements.  The  philosophical  writings  of  Maimonides,  produced 
•under  Greek  influence  (through  Moslem  translations  of  Aristotle), 
were  directed  to  the  elucidation  of  Old  Testament  ideas.  The 
contributions  of  modern  Christians,  Jews,  Moslems,  and  Parsis 
to  knowledge,  sacred  books  being  the  occasions,  are  numerous 
and  important. 

1136.  Along  with  these  beneficent  influences  there  have  been 
others  less  praiseworthy.  As  any  sacred  book  belongs  to  a  par- 
ticular age,  it  inevitably,  in  the  course  of  time,  falls  into  disaccord 
with  later  ideas  on  certain  points.  When  this  happens  there  are 
always  some  persons  who,  failing  to  discriminate  between  the  local 
and  transitory  and  the  permanent,  unjustly  reject  the  book  in  toto\ 
others,  making  a  distinction,  take  it  as  a  literary  product,  accept 
what  they  think  valuable,  and  treat  the  rest  as  an  imperfect  product 
of  the  past.  Those  who  accept  the  book  as  divinely  inspired  and 
therefore,  as  they  think,  infallible  either  maintain  literally  all  its 
statements  (cosmological,  historical,  eschatological,  and  other)  or 
else  undertake  to  interpret  certain  of  them  in  accordance  with 
current  views.  When  such  interpretation  is  forced,  it  becomes 
intellectually  and  morally  an  evil  — -  it  accustoms  the  religious  pub- 
lic to  logical  distortions,  and  it  nourishes  a  disingenuousness  that 
easily  becomes  immoral.  The  belief  that  a  sacred  book  is  final 
authority  often  results  in  limitation  of  freedom  of  thought  — 
certain  things  are  excluded  from  discussion.  The  instinctive  de- 
mand for  freedom  asserts  itself,  however,  in  various  ways :  some- 
times, as  described  above,  a  desired  sense  is  obtained  by  violence ; 
sometimes  a  religious  body  that  is  regarded  by  its  adherents  as 
authoritative  interpreter  changes  its  decision,  in  accord  with  the 
spirit  of  a  new  age,  and  grants  liberty  where  it  had  previously 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  563 

refused  it.  The  treatment  of  sacred  books  follows  the  phases  of 
general  culture. 

The  dogmatic  statements  of  these  books  are  condensed  into 
creeds,  which  become  organic  law.1  The)'  express  each  the  inter- 
pretation put  by  a  given  church  on  the  words  of  its  sacred  Scrip- 
tures. The  interpretations  are  the  outcome  of  historical  processes, 
the  final  result  of  which  is  a  formulation  of  the  ideas  of  its  time  ; 
where  the  same  sacred  book  is  accepted  by  several  churches,  there 
may  be  several  different  creeds  based  on  the  one  book  —  that  is, 
churches  and  creeds  alike  are  subject  to  the  variations  of  human 
opinion  that  result  from  differences  of  temperament,  social  sur- 
roundings, and  general  culture.  Creeds  are  convenient  and  effec- 
tive manuals.  They  may  be  made  to  change  their  meaning  by 
processes  of  interpretation ;  elasticity  in  a  creed  is  favorable  to 
permanence  —  it  is  thereby  able  to  adapt  itself  to  changing  condi- 
tions —  and  the  degree  of  elasticity  depends  largely  on  the  persons 
who  are  its  authorized  expounders,  that  is,  on  the  area  of  public 
opinion  that  these  persons  represent. 

1137.  General  influence  of  churches.  All  organized  religion  has 
been  a  potent  factor  in  human  life.  In  savage  and  half-civilized 
communities  it  enters  into  every  detail  of  life,  since,  in  the  absence 
of  knowledge  of  natural  law,  everything  that  happens  is  ascribed 
to  supernatural  agency.  In  the  old  national  cults,  in  which  other 
departments  of  thought  (art,  commerce,  science,  philosophy)  be- 
came prominent,  religion  was  somewhat  isolated  —  it  received  a 
particular  representation  in  sacrifices,  festivals,  and  other  observ- 
ances ;  but  such  ceremonies  were  so  numerous,  and  so  many 
ancient  customs  survived,  that  it  still  played  a  conspicuous  part 
in  daily  life.2  In  the  period  in  which  churches  arose  there  was  a 
still  greater  specialization  of  the  activities  of  life,  and  this  special- 
ization has  become  more  pronounced  in  modem  times,  in  which 
from  various  causes  the  tendency  is  to  mass  religious  observances 

1  A  creed  usually  contains  also  an  affirmation  of  the  authority  of  the  book  on 
which  it  is  based.  Some  religious  bodies  do  not  regard  any  book  as  absolutely 
authoritative,  and  their  creeds  are  merely  expressions  of  their  independent  religious 
beliefs. 

2  So  among  the  Egyptians,  Hebrews,  Hindus,  Greeks,  Romans,  and  others. 


564     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

in  certain  days  and  seasons  and  leave  the  rest  of  the  time  free. 
This  apparent  banishment  of  religion  from  everyday  affairs  does 
not,  however,  signify  diminution  of  interest  in  religion  itself  — 
partly  it  is  an  economic  arrangement,  the  assignment  of  a  definite 
time  to  every  particular  duty,  but  mainly  it  is  the  result  of  a  better 
conception  of  what  religion  means,  the  feeling  that,  being  an  inward 
experience,  it  is  less  dependent  on  external  occasions. 

1138.  Churches,  as  is  remarked  above,  differ  from  the  old 
national  religions  mainly  in  the  emphasis  they  lay  on  individualism 
and  on  the  idea  of  redemption.  They  represent  a  profounder  con- 
ception of  the  ethical  relation  between  man  and  God,  or,  as  in 
Buddhism,  between  man  and  the  ideal  of  perfection  in  the  universe. 
They  foster  religion  by  holding  public  services  and  by  the  produc- 
tion of  devotional  works  ;  they  advance  learning  by  supplying  men 
of  leisure ;  socially  they  are  in  general  a  conservative  force,  with 
the  good  and  bad  effects  of  conservatism.  But  their  special  function 
is  to  treat  man  as  a  spiritual  being  having  immediate  personal  re- 
lations with  the  deity.  Charitable  and  educational  work  (ethical 
and  other)  and  social  gatherings  they  share  with  other  organizations, 
and  they  are  incompetent  in  themselves  to  deal  with  economic  and 
other  scientific  questions.  That  wherein  they  stand  apart  from 
other  organizations  is  the  emotional  element  they  introduce  into 
man's  attitude  toward  the  universe.  According  to  this  point  of 
view  man  regards  himself  not  merely  as  a  part  of  the  world  but 
as  bound  to  its  author  by  ties  of  gratitude  and  affection.  This 
sentiment  may  be  independent  of  all  scientific  theories,  may  be 
shared  by  the  learned  and  the  unlearned  ;  it  is  thus  a  great  unifying 
force,  and  gives  to  life  the  glow  of  enthusiasm  with  the  repose 
of  trust. 

1139.  The  temptations  to  which  churches  are  exposed  are  those 
that  are  touched  on  above,  and  they  may  be  briefly  summed  up 
here.  There  is  the  tendency  to  an  excessive  elaboration  of  the 
externals  of  religion,  ritual,  and  dogma.  Something  of  these  is 
doubtless  necessary  in  churches  as  in  all  human  organizations, 
but  they  may  easily  be  carried  so  far  as  to  obscure  the  essential 
things.    The  history  of  all  churches  exhibits  this  tendency.    There 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  565 

are  protests  from  time  to  time,  revolts  against  formalities  and 
speculations,  and  then  frequently  in  the  new  organizations  the  old 
movement  is  resumed.  P'or  our  own  times  a  distinction  may  per- 
haps be  made :  while  there  seems  to  be  a  steady  general  increase 
of  ritual,  there  is  in  many  quarters  a  disposition  to  minimize  or 
curtail  dogma. 

1140.  However  this  may  be,  a  more  important  tendency  in 
churches  is  toward  the  claim  to  absolute  authority  in  religious 
matters.  This  tendency  is  universal  in  bodies  that  hold  to  the 
infallibility  of  certain  sacred  books.  It  is  obvious  that  absolute 
authority  in  an  organized  body  and  individual  freedom  are  mutu- 
ally incompatible,1  and  that  all  that  makes  for  freedom  makes 
against  the  church  influence  in  this  direction.  Finally,  when 
churches  enter  into  administrative  alliance  with  the  civil  authorities, 
or  assume  civil  and  political  power,  they  to  that  extent  abdicate 
their  spiritual  rights  and  abandon  their  true  function. 

Universal  Religions 

1141.  So  far  only  particular  religions,  belonging  to  particular 
peoples  or  regions,  have  been  considered.  In  recent  years  the 
question  has  been  much  discussed  whether  any  of  these  may  be 
called  universal.  A  universal  religion  may  be  defined  either  as  one 
that  has  been  accepted  by  all  peoples,  or  as  one  whose  doctrines 
are  such  that  it  may  be  so  accepted.  The  term  is  frequently  used 
loosely  to  describe  a  religion  that  has  passed  definitely  beyond  its 
birthplace  and  has  been  adopted  by  different  nations  or  districts. 
Obviously,  if  we  take  the  stricter  definition,  the  question  at  issue 
can  be  decided  only  by  an  appeal  to  facts.  Whether  or  not  a  given 
religion  has  actually  been  universally  accepted  can  be  determined 
from  statistics,  and  the  question  whether  it  is  fitted  to  be  generally 
adopted  must  be  answered  by  a  similar  appeal.  It  may  be  held, 
and  is  held,  of  various  religions  that  their  standards  are  so  high 
and  their  schemes  of  worship  and  conceptions  of  salvation  so 
obviously   suited   to   human   nature   that   they  cannot  fail   to   be 

1  Cf.  Sabatier,  Authority  in  Religion  (Eng.  tr.),  and  the  bibliography  therein  given. 


566     IXTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

adopted  when  they  are  known ;  but  such  are  the  diversities  of 
human  thought  that  this  consideration  cannot  be  regarded  as  de- 
cisive—  a  religious  system  that  seems  to  one  set  of  men  to  be 
perfect  may  appear  to  others  to  be  unsatisfactory,1  and  it  is  only 
by  trial  that  it  can  be  determined  how  far  it  is  capable  of  conquer- 
ing new  territory.  The  test  of  actual  diffusion,  then,  must  be  ap- 
plied to  those  religions  for  which  the  claim  to  universality  has  been 
made  —  these  are  Buddhism,  Judaism,  Christianity,  Zoroastrianism, 
and  Islam.2 

1142.  Buddhism  has  had  a  history  full  of  vicissitudes.3  Begin- 
ning in  Northern  India  as  an  Aryan  faith,  in  the  course  of  a  few 
centuries  it  overran  a  great  part  of  the  peninsula,  then  began  to 
decline,  gradually  lost  its  hold  on  the  people,  partly,  it  is  said,  by 
reason  of  the  corruption  of  its  morals,  chiefly,  doubtless,  because 
it  was  not  suited  to  the  character  of  the  Hindu  people,  and  finally, 
in  the  twelfth  century  of  our  era,  left  its  native  land,  to  which  it 
has  never  returned.  Meantime  it  had  established  itself  firmly  in 
Ceylon  and  later  in  Burma  and  Siam  and  had  been  carried  to  China 
(not  long  after  the  beginning  of  our  era),  whence  it  passed  to 
Korea,  Central  Asia,  Japan,  and  adjacent  islands,  and  as  early  as 
the  sixth  century  gained  a  footing  in  Tibet.  It  has  maintained  its 
conquests  outside  of  India  to  the  present  day,  except  that  it  has 
been  driven  out  of  a  considerable  part  of  Central  Asia  by  Moham- 
medanism ;  in  China  and  Japan  it  exists  alongside  of  the  native 
cults,  its  relations  with  which  are  friendly.  It  presents  the  curious 
spectacle  of  a  religion,  originally  Hindu  Aryan,  that  now  finds  a 
home  exclusively  (with  one  exception,  Ceylon)  among  non-Aryan 
peoples ;  but  among  these  peoples  it  has  generally  been  degraded 
by  the  infusion  of  low  native  elements,  and  has  discarded  its  original 
essence.  By  reason  of  its  negative  attitude  toward  life  it  has  found 
no  favor  as  a  system  with  Western  Indo-Europeans,  Persians,  and 
Semites,  except  that  it  gave  a  coloring  to  certain  Persian  sects  (the 

1  The  contention  that  a  given  religion  must  triumph  because  it  is  divine  and  its 
triumph  is  divinely  predicted  introduces  a  discussion  that  cannot  be  gone  into  here, 
where  the  object  is  to  consider  existing  facts. 

2  Babism  (or  Bahaism)  also  claims  to  be  universal,  but  its  origin  is  so  recent  that 
this  claim  cannot  be  tested.  3  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhism. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  567 

Ismailic)  and  has  perhaps  influenced  Bahaism.1  As  far  as  present 
appearances  go  there  is  no  probability  of  its  gaining  general 
acceptance. 

1143.  Judaism  is  too  much  encumbered  with  peculiar  national 
usages  to  commend  itself  to  non-Jews.  There  was  a  time  just  before 
and  just  after  the  beginning  of  our  era  when  a  considerable  number 
of  persons  resorted  to  it  for  escape  from  the  confusion  of  current 
religious  systems,  and  since  that  time  there  have  been  conversions 
here  and  there  ;  but  these  have  been  too  few  to  affect  the  general 
character  of  religion  in  any  community.  Even  to  Reform  Judaism, 
which  has  discarded  Talmudic  usages  and  does  not  differ  doctrin- 
ally  from  certain  forms  of  Christianity,  there  clings  a  racial  tone 
that  tends  to  isolate  it,  and  it  does  not  seem  that  this  isolation  is 
likely  to  cease  soon. 

1144.  Christianity,  beginning  as  a  Jewish  movement,  speedily 
became  Graeco-Roman,  and  in  this  form  took  possession  of  the 
whole  of  Western  Asia  (except  Jewish  districts  and  parts  of  Arabia), 
Greece,  Italy,  Egypt,  and  the  northern  coast  of  Africa,  and  was 
adopted,  under  Byzantine  and  Roman  influence,  by  the  Celtic, 
Slavonic,  and  Teutonic  tribes.  Most  of  its  Asiatic  and  all  of  its 
African  territory  except  Abessinia  was  taken  from  it  by  Moham- 
medanism in  the  seventh  century,  but  small  bodies  of  Christians 
remained  in  Armenia,  Mesopotamia,  Syria,  and  Egypt.  With  this 
exception  it  has  since  been  the  religion  only  of  the  Western  Indo- 
Europeans  and  of  a  few  half-civilized  peoples  who  have  been 
Christianized  either  by  missionaries  (the  Karens  of  Burma,  a  part 
of  the  Telugus  of  Southeastern  India  and  others)  or  by  contact 
with  Westerners  (Philippine  Islands,  tribes  of  North  America  and 
South  America)  or  by  both  these  agencies  (the  Hawaiian  Islands). 
Local  peculiarities  have  been  largely  banished  from  its  usages  but 
not  from  its  dogma.  It  is,  apparently,  its  dogma  (in  the  orthodox 
form)  that  has  prevented  its  acceptance  by  most  Semites,  by  the 


1  It  has  been  professed  by  a  few  persons  in  Europe  and  America,  but  the  so- 
called  "  theosophy  "  is  not  Buddhism.  On  supposed  points  of  contact  between  the 
New  Testament  and  Buddhism  cf.  C.  F.  Aiken,  The  Dhamma  of  Gotama  the  Buddha 
and  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  tlic  Christ. 


568     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

peoples  of  Central  and  Eastern  Asia,  and  by  many  undeveloped 
tribes  of  Africa  and  Oceania. 

1145.  Zoroastrianism  has  never  advanced  to  any  important 
extent  beyond  the  boundaries  of  its  native  land.  It  has  never 
recovered  from  the  crushing  blow  dealt  it  by  Mohammedanism 
in  the  seventh  century,  and  is  now  professed  by  hardly  more  than 
100,000  persons  (mostly  in  Bombay). 

1146.  Islam  is  now  the  religion  of  the  Turkish  empire  (except 
the  Christian  groups  in  Europe,  Syria,  Mesopotamia,  and  Armenia), 
Persia,  Egypt  (except  the  Copts),  and  the  North  African  coast,  and 
has  a  large  following  in  Central  Asia,  China,  India,  the  Malay  penin- 
sula, the  Malay  Archipelago,  the  Sudan,  and  a  considerable  rep- 
resentation on  the  east  and  west  coasts  of  Africa.  Its  spread,  as 
is  remarked  above,  has  been  effected  sometimes  by  force,  but  oftener 
by  social  pressure  and  through  traders  and  missionaries.  Decadent 
Christianity  in  Palestine,  Syria,  and  Egypt  readily  yielded  to  it; 
Persian  Zoroastrianism  made  some  effort  to  maintain  itself  but 
succumbed  to  the  combination  of  military  pressure  and  the  pros- 
pect of  civil  advancement  and  peace ;  after  the  fall  of  Constanti- 
nople conversions  of  Christians  in  Europe  were  numerous,  and  the 
Moslem  conquests  in  India  were  followed  by  a  considerable  acces- 
sion of  Hindus  to  the  Islamic  faith.  At  the  present  time  it  appears 
to  be  advancing  only  among  the  half -civilized  tribes  of  Central  Africa, 
but  it  maintains  its  position  against  Buddhism  and  Christianity.1 

1147.  There  is,  thus,  now  no  religion  that,  so  far  as  extent  of 
diffusion  is  concerned,  can  be  called  universal.  Omitting  the  Jewish 
and  Parsi  groups,  the  Brahmanic  and  other  religions  of  India,  and 
the  Chinese  Confucian  cult,  three  great  religions  have  divided  the 
world  among  them,  Buddhism  taking  Eastern  Asia,  Islam  Western 
Asia  and  Northern  Africa,  and  Christianity  Europe  and  America. 
It  is  sometimes  suggested  that  the  religion  of  the  leaders  of  civili- 
zation, the  Christian  nations,  must  become  the  faith  of  the  world. 
But,  even  if  we  may  look  forward  to  a  time  when  social  fusion, 
under  the  control  of  the  present  Christian  nations,  shall  have 
brought  about  substantial  unity  of  religious  thought  in  the  world, 

1  T.  W.  Arnold,  The  Preaching  of  I  slain. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  569 

it  is  impossible  now  to  predict  what  the  nature  of  that  thought 
will  be,  since  Christianity  has  undergone  and  is  now  undergoing 
change,  and  may  in  the  far  future  assume  a  different  form  from 
that  of  to-day ;  fundamentals  may  remain,  but  opinions  differ  even 
now  as  to  what  are  fundamentals. 

1148.  Classification  of  religions.  A  word  may  be  added  on  pro- 
posed classifications  of  religions.1  Certain  resemblances  and  differ- 
ences between  religions  are  obvious,  and  groups  may  be  made, 
geographical,  ritualistic,  theologic,  or  soteriological,  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  find  a  principle  of  classification  that  shall  bring  out  the 
essential  characteristic  or  characteristics  of  every  religion  and  yet 
distinctly  mark  every  one  off  from  all  others.  All  have  much  in 
common,  and  the  elements  in  all  are  so  mixed  that  divisions  nec- 
essarily cross  one  another.  Every  religion  is  the  product  of  some 
one  community  and  represents  its  peculiar  view  of  human  life  in 
its  relation  to  the  supernatural ;  there  may  be  borrowings  and 
fusions,  but  the  final  outcome  is  shaped  by  the  thought  of  the 
people  to  whom  the  religion  specifically  belongs.2  The  differences 
between  various  religions  are  the  differences  of  thought  between 
the  communities  involved,  and  the  differences  and  the  resemblances 
are  often  curious,  and  sometimes  defy  explanation. 

1149.  Leaving  aside  ritual,  which,  so  far  as  it  is  a  merely  ex- 
ternal form  of  approach  to  the  deity,  does  not  touch  the  essence 
of  religion,  the  following  points  may  be  said  to  be  common  to  all 
religions:  (1)  The  sense  of  a  supernatural  control  of  life,  and  the 
conviction  that  the  supernatural  Power  must  be  placated  or  obeyed.3 
(2)  The  belief  that  religion  deals  with  and  controls  the  whole  of 
life ;  this  belief  is  pronounced  among  savages,  who  know  nothing 
of  natural  law,  and  is  regarded  as  essential  in  more  advanced  com- 
munities, in  which,  from  the  religious  point  of  view,  law,  physical 

1  See  Tiele,  article  "  Religion  "  in  Encyclopcedia  Britannica,  9th  ed.,  and  cf.  his 
Elements  of  the  Science  of  Religion,  i,  28  ff . :  R.  de  la  Grasserie,  Des  religions  com- 
paries  cat  point  de  -cue  sociologique ;  M.  Jastrow,  The  Study  of  Religion,  pp.  58  ff.; 
article  "  Religion  "  in  Encyclopedia  Britannica,  nth  ed. 

2  Cases  of  adoption  of  alien  cults  bodily  are  here  of  course  excluded  ;  in  such 
cases  the  cults  are  to  be  referred  to  the  creators  and  not  to  the  borrowers. 

3  In  some  forms  of  Brahmanism,  in  Buddhism,  and  in  some  modern  systems  this 
Power  is  impersonal  or  undefined. 


5/0     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

or  mental,  is  taken  to  be  an  expression  of  the  will  of  the  deity. 
(3)  The  creation  of  divine  personalities1  (representing  popular 
ideals),  and  movements  toward  a  unitary  view  of  the  divine  con- 
trol of  the  world.  (4)  An  ethical  element  in  the  conception  of  the 
character  of  the  supernatural  Power  and  the  modes  of  pleasing 
this  Power.  The  ethical  side  of  religion  corresponds  to  the  general 
ethical  standard  of  the  people  —  in  savages  it  is  low,  but  it  exists. 
(5)  The  conception  of  salvation  as  the  goal  of  religious  faith  and 
service ;  the  salvation  looked  for  is  at  first  physical,  is  gradually 
moralized,  and  ultimately  takes  the  form  of  spiritual  union  with  the 
deity.  These  are  the  essential  elements  of  religion ;  they  all  exist 
in  crude  form  in  the  lowest  strata  of  society,  and  are  purified  in 
the  course  of  social  growth. 

1150.  A  classification  naturally  suggested  by  this  enumeration 
of  fundamentals  would  be  one  based  on  grades  of  general  culture, 
savage,  half-civilized,  and  civilized  ;  but  such  a  classification  would 
not  take  account  of  the  differences  of  character  in  the  members  of 
the  higher  grades.  These  differ  from  one  another  in  the  concep- 
tion of  the  ultimate  Power  of  the  world  and  cf  the  nature  of 
salvation  and  the  mode  of  attaining  it,  and  in  other  less  important 
points.  They  are  so  highly  composite  in  structure  that  their  inter- 
relations are  complicated,  and  those  that  are  brought  together  by 
one  critical  canon  may  be  separated  by  another.  Buddhism  is  allied 
on  one  side  (the  ignoring  of  deity)  to  Confucianism  and  Epicurean- 
ism, on  another  side  (the  hope  of  moral  salvation)  to  Christianity. 
Zoroastrianism  touches  the  Veda  in  its  theistic  construction,  and 
is  remarkably  like  Judaism  in  its  organization.  Christianity  is  Jew- 
ish on  one  side  and  Graeco-Roman  on  another.  Islam  has  Christian 
and  Jewish  conceptions  attached  to  the  old-Semitic  view  of  life. 

1151.  A  distinction  of  importance  is  that  between  national  reli- 
gions and  those  founded  each  by  a  single  man  (Buddhism,  Chris- 
tianity, Islam).2  This  distinction  may  be  pressed  too  far  —  all 
religions    have    great    men    who    have    given    new    directions    to 

1  On  Gautama's  attitude  toward  divine  beings  cf.  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhism,  p.  87  f. ; 
Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  333  f. 

2  W.  D.  Whitney,  Princeton  Review,  May,  1SS1. 


SOCIAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  RELIGION  57 1 

thought,  and  no  religion  can  be  said  to  be  wholly  the  creation  of 
an  individual  man,  since  all,  as  is  pointed  out  above,  are  outcomes 
of  the  ideas  of  communities.1  The  distinction  in  question  is  not  a 
satisfactory  basis  for  a  general  classification  since  it  fails  to  note 
the  theological  differences  between  the  various  religions.  Never- 
theless, it  embodies  a  significant  fact :  in  the  course  of  the  history 
of  the  world  the  three  religions  above-named  have  come  to  divide 
the  civilized  world  among  them,  that  is,  they  have  been  selected  as 
best  responding  to  the  religious  needs  of  men.  No  one  of  them  is 
universal,  but  the  three  together  practically  include  the  civilized 
world.2  They  are  modified  in  various  ways  by  their  adherents,  but 
they  have  not  been  superseded.  They  have  grown  beyond  the  ideas 
of  their  founders,  but  these  latter  nevertheless  occupy  a  unique 
position.  Moses  and  Zoroaster  are  dim  figures  whose  work  it  is 
impossible  to  define,  but  the  teachings  of  Buddha  and  Jesus,  though 
they  left  no  writings,  are  known  with  substantial  accuracy,  and 
Mohammed  has  expressed  himself  in  a  book.  The  persons  of  the 
three  founders  are  the  objects  of  a  devotion  not  given  to  other 
leaders.  These  things  justify  us  in  putting  Buddhism,  Christianity, 
and  Mohammedanism  in  a  class  by  themselves,  of  which  the  dis- 
tinguishing note  is  the  discarding  of  local  national  ideas  and  usages. 
These  last  are  not  wholly  given  up,  but  they  are  less  prominent 
than  in  Judaism  and  Zoroastrianism.  It  is  to  the  insight  of  the 
individual  founders  that  this  relative  freedom  from  local  features 
is  due.  This  characteristic  does  not  necessarily  carry  with  it  supe- 
riority in  ethical  and  general  religious  conceptions. 

A  different  line  of  cleavage  is  indicated  by  the  designation  "  re- 
ligions of  redemption."  In  one  sense  all  religions  come  under  this 
head,3  for  all  have  for  their  object  the  freeing  man  from  the  ills  of 
life.    In  a  higher  sense  the  term  '  redemption '  means  deliverance 

1  Kuenen,  National  Religions  and  Universal  Religions  (Ilibbert  Lectures,  1882)  : 
Tiele,  Elements  of  the  Science  of  Religion,  i,  43  ff. ;  Jastrow,  Study  of  Religion, 
p.  89  ff. 

2  Confucian  China  and  Shintoist  Japan  are  excluded  ;  but  in  both  these  countries 
Buddhism  is  widespread.  Pure  Confucianism  is  not  a  religion,  and  the  old  Shinto 
is  no  longer  believed  in  by  educated  Japanese. 

3  Cf.  Tiele,  Elements  of  the  Science  of  Religion,  Index,  s.v. 


572      IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

from  the  power  of  sin  and  from  its  punishment,  particularly  in  the 
world  to  come.  This  meaning  appears  in  definite  form  in  Buddhism 
and  Christianity,  and  somewhat  less  distinctly  in  Mithraism  and  the 
later  Judaism ;  in  the  Old  Testament  religion  and  Islam  it  is  not 
clearly  stated.  As  it  appears  in  germinal  form  in  the  lower  cults, 
its  development  may  be  traced  up  to  its  culmination  in  the  systems 
in  which  man  is  freed  from  moral  taint  through  the  agency  of  an 
individual  savior  or  in  accordance  with  a  cosmic  ethical  law. 

1152.  Unity  exists  among  the  lowest  and  among  the  highest 
religious  systems.  Among  savage  and  half-civilized  cults  there  are 
no  important  differences  —  they  all  have  the  same  ideas  respecting 
the  nature  and  functions  of  supernatural  Powers  and  the  ways  of 
approaching  them.1  In  the  higher  cults  a  process  of  differentiation 
goes  on  for  a  certain  time  while  each  is  developing  its  special  char- 
acteristics, and  then  a  counter-movement  sets  in  —  they  all  tend  to 
come  together  by  suppressing  local  features  and  emphasizing  gen- 
eral ideas.2  Thus  at  the  present  day  there  are  groups  of  Buddhists, 
Zoroastrians,  Jews,  Christians,  and  Moslems  that,  without  aban- 
doning their  several  faiths,  find  themselves  in  substantial  accord 
on  some  essential  points.  The  unity  of  savages  is  the  uniformity 
of  undeveloped  thought ;  the  later  unity  rests  on  discrimination 
between  fundamentals  and  accessories. 

1153.  Tabulated  classifications  of  religions,  it  would  seem,  must 
be  arbitrary  and  misleading  —  they  give  undue  prominence  to  some 
one  religious  fact,  they  maim  the  individuality  of  cults,  and  they 
obscure  the  relations  between  certain  cults  by  putting  these  into 
different  divisions.  The  true  relations  between  the  various  religious 
systems  may  be  brought  out  by  comparisons.  In  this  way  individ- 
uality and  unitary  character  may  be  preserved  in  every  case,  while 
the  agreements  and  disagreements  may  be  made  clear  by  referring 
them  to  general  principles  of  religious  development. 

1  Myths,  it  may  be  remarked,  are  not  confined  to  the  uncivilized  and  the  old 
national  cults ;   they  are  found   in  all  great  religious  systems. 

2  See,  in  this  connection,  the  account  of  the  faith  of  the  philosopher  Sallustius, 
the  Emperor  Julian's  friend,  by  Professor  Gilbert  Murray,  f'  A  Pagan  Creed,"  in  the 
English  Review  for  December,  1909.  The  term  'pagan"  now  has  a  connotation  that 
is  singularly  out  of  accord  with  the  character  of  a  man  like  Sallustius. 


CHAPTER   XI 

SCIENTIFIC  AND   ETHICAL  ELEMENTS   IN 
RELIGIOUS   SYSTEMS 

1154.  It  is  remarked  above *  that  the  sphere  of  religion  is  wholly 
distinct  from  that  of  science  (including  philosophy  and  art)  and 
from  that  of  constructive  ethics  (the  determination  of  rules  of  con- 
duct), while  it  is  true  that  the  three,  being  coexistent  and  original 
departments  of  human  nature,  must  influence  one  another,  and 
must  tend  to  coalesce  and  be  fused  into  a  unitary  conception  of 
life.  This  process  goes  on  in  different  degrees  in  different  times 
and  places,  sometimes  one  department  of  thought  getting  the  upper 
hand  and  sometimes  another,  but  we  cannot  suppose  that  it  ever 
ceases  entirely.  The  relation  between  religion  and  its  two  com- 
panions may  become  clear  from  a  brief  survey  of  the  facts  given 
by  historical  records,  this  term  being  used  to  include  all  trustworthy 
sources  of  information. 

The  Scientific  Element 

1155.  Man  is  bound  by  his  constitution  to  inquire  into  the 
nature  of  things,  to  seek  for  the  facts  of  the  world,  including  the 
human  soul.  This  search  is  made  by  both  religion  and  science, 
but  their  procedures  are  somewhat  different.  Religion  demands 
only  the  fact  of  an  ultimate  moral  ground  of  the  world ;  science 
observes  all  phenomena  and  endeavors  to  connect  and  organize 
them  by  a  thread  of  natural  causation  or  invariable  sequence ; 
religion  looks  behind  phenomena  to  what  it  regards  as  its  source. 
This  source  is  reached  by  some  process  of  reasoning,  either  by 
acceptance,  on  grounds  held  to  be  satisfactory,  of  a  divine  revela- 
tion, or  by  inference  from  the  facts  of  the  world  (as  the  presence 

1  §  14  t 

573 


574     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

of  design  or  of  moral  order)  ;  but,  when  it  is  reached,  all  other 
facts  of  science  are  treated  as  irrelevant.  If,  then,  science  confines 
itself  to  the  observation  of  sequences,  the  relation  between  the  two 
cannot  be  one  of  permanent  hostility,  since  their  material  is  not  the 
same.  They  clash  when  an  old  nonreligious  belief,  adopted  by 
religion,  is  confronted  by  an  antagonistic  scientific  discovery ;  the 
first  result  is  a  protest,  but  the  mind  demands  harmony,  and  reli- 
gion always  ends  by  accepting  a  well-attested  scientific  conclusion,1 
and  bringing  it  into  harmony  with  its  fundamental  beliefs. 

1156.  Certain  phases  in  the  relations  between  religion  and  sci- 
ence may  be  distinguished,  but  an  earlier  or  cruder  phase  may  con- 
tinue to  exist  alongside  of  a  later  and  higher  one.  There  is  first 
the  time  when  science  based  on  a  recognition  of  natural  laws  does 
not  exist.  The  existing  science  is  then  one  of  imagination,  the 
fanciful  application  of  crude  observations  to  the  explanation  of  all 
phenomena.  The  verae  causae  are  supernatural  agencies  —  science 
and  religion  are  one.  Explanations  of  phenomena  take  the  form 
of  what  we  call  myths,  what  the  people  of  the  time  regard  as  true 
histories.  There  is  no  place  for  the  conception  of  miracle ;  the 
supernatural  agents  are  all-powerful,  one  thing  is  no  harder  than 
another,  nothing  is  strange  or  inexplicable.  There  is  a  crude  concep- 
tion of  the  unity  of  God  and  the  world. 

1157.  The  period  of  the  rise  and  decline  of  the  great  national 
religions  and  the  rise  of  monotheistic  cults  (along  with  which  may 
be  included  Confucianism  and  Buddhism)  is  characterized  by  a 
great  development  of  philosophy  (in  China,  India,  and  Greece)  and 
a  beginning  of  scientific  research  properly  so  called  (especially  in 
astronomy,  physics,  medicine,  and  chemistry,  in  Greece  and  by  the 
Moslems  of  Persia).  There  is  a  revolt  against  the  older  conception 
of  unity.  Deities  are  highly  personalized,  stand  outside  of  the  world, 
and  intervene  in  human  affairs  at  crises.  It  is  the  age  of  miracles 
—  supernatural  Powers,  by  reason  of  their  intimate  social  relations 
with  their  respective  communities,  are  expected  to  come  to  their 

1  Examples  are  the  Copernican  and  Newtonian  theories ;  the  magnitude  of  the 
stellar  universe  ;  Biblical  criticism  ;  the  theories  of  evolution  and  the  conservation 
of  energy. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  ETHICAL  ELEMENTS  575 

aid  in  all  important  matters,  and,  for  most  persons,  there  is  no 
difficulty  in  holding  that  they  are  able  to  change  the  course  of 
nature,  which  is  not  regarded  as  being  absolutely  fixed.  In  certain 
philosophical  circles,  however,  this  view  is  rejected,  and  nature, 
with  its  laws,  is  conceived  of  as  a  separate  and  independent  ex- 
istence, accompanied  or  not  by  gods.  Science  begins  to  define  the 
nature  of  deities,  and  to  limit  the  sphere  of  their  practical  activities 

—  this  is  a  precursor  of  the  fall  of  the  old  divinities.  The  old  myths 
are  retained,  but  they  are  purified,  humanized,  and  allegorized,  and 
in  some  cases  applied  to  new  persons  and  events,  according  to 
changes  in  religious  construction. 

1158.  The  next  phase  is  the  recognition  by  science  of  the  ab- 
solute domination  of  natural  law  in  the  world  of  phenomena.  Reli- 
gion, when  it  accepts  this  view,  holds  fast  to  the  belief  in  the 
ultimate  personal  moral  Force,  and  conceives  of  this  Force  as 
working  and  expressing  and  manifesting  itself  only  in  phenomena 
in  accordance  with  natural  law  —  that  is,  this  law  is  regarded  as 
the  expression  of  the  divine  will.  Science  is  thus  given  liberty  to 
investigate  phenomena  to  the  fullest  extent,  and  religion  is  freed 
from  the  incumbrance  of  physical,  psychological,  and  metaphysical 
theories ;  the  spheres  of  the  two  are  sharply  defined  and  kept 
separate.  Such  a  conception  is  held  to  differ  from  "  naturalism  " 
or  "  materialism "  in  that  it  recognizes  a  Power  distinct  from 
matter — to  differ  from  what  has  been  called  "  humanism  "  (which 
makes  man  the  sole  power  in  the  world),  or  from  positivism  (which 
regards  man  as  the  only  worthy  object  of  worship),  in  that  it 
ascribes  to  the  will  and  activity  of  divine  spirit  the  high  position 
of  humanity  as  the  center  and  explanation  of  the  life  of  the  world 

—  to  differ  from  pantheism  in  that  for  it  God  is  a  personal  being 
who  enters  into  relations  with  a  free  humanity  —  and  to  differ  from 
agnosticism  in  that  it  holds  that  God  may  be  known  from  his  works. 

1159.  Whatever  difficulties  may  attach  to  this  conception  are 
regarded  by  its  adherents  as  not  insuperable.  In  all  religious  sys- 
tems except  Buddhism  and  Positivism  the  personality  of  the  ulti- 
mate ground  of  the  world  is  looked  on  as  a  necessary  datum.  In 
the  view  under  consideration  it  is  held  that  God  exists  for  the  world 


576     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

in  which  he  expresses  himself,  as  the  world  exists  for  him,  its  source 
and  end.  The  world,  with  all  its  parts  and  incidents,  is  conceived 
of  as  a  sacred  thing,  consecrated  to  God,  and  ever  striving  to  realize 
him  in  itself,  and  itself  in  him.  Under  the  guidance  of  exacter 
scientific  thought  the  old  crude  idea  of  the  unity  of  the  divine  and 
the  world  is  thus  transformed  into  the  idea  of  a  unity  of  will  and 
work.  In  this  conception  there  is  no  place  for  myths,  and  no  need 
is  felt  for  miracles  :  histories  of  the  external  world  and  of  human 
.society  are  held  to  rest  on  observation  of  facts,  and  generally  the 
possibility  of  miracles  is  not  denied,  but  they  are  regarded  as  un- 
necessary and  improbable  —  they  are  thought  unnecessary  because 
the  conception  of  the  divine  character  and  the  religious  life  are  not 
supposed  to  be  dependent  on  them,  and  they  are  thought  improbable 
because  they  are  held  to  be  not  supported  by  experience.  This  is 
the  attitude  of  those  persons  who  accept  the  conclusions  of  science ; 
there  is,  however,  great  difference  of  opinion  in  the  religious  world 
on  this  point.1 

1160.  Certain  scientific  and  philosophical  positions  discard  reli- 
gion as  a  department  of  human  life.  When  it  is  held  that  man 
knows  nothing  and  can  know  nothing  but  phenomena,  or  when,  if 
something  is  assumed  behind  phenomena,  it  is  regarded-  as  too 
vague  to  enter  into  personal  relations  with  men,  religion  as  a  force 
in  life  becomes  impossible.  In  these  cases  the  two  conceptions  must 
stand  side  by  side  as  enemies  till  one  or  the  other  is  proved,  to  the 
satisfaction  of  men,  to  be  untenable.  Meanwhile  it  appears  that 
one  result  of  scientific  investigations  has  been  to  delimitate  religion 
by  making  it  clear  that,  while  it  belongs  as  an  influence  to  all  life, 
it  cannot  include  scientific  theories  as  a  part  of  its  content  —  a  result 
that  cannot  be  otherwise  than  favorable  to  its  development. 

The  Ethical  Element 

1161.  Conduct  has  always  been  associated  with  religion.  Super- 
natural Powers  have  been  regarded  as  members  of  the  tribe  or 
other  society,  divine  headmen  part  of  whose  function  it  is  to  see 

1  The  general  religious  attitude  may  be  the  same  whether  the  world  be  regarded 
as  monistic  or  as  pluralistic. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  ETHICAL  ELEMENTS  577 

that  the  existing  customs  are  observed,  these  customs  being  ethical 
as  well  as  ritual.  Even  in  such  low  tribes  as  the  Fuegians  and  the 
Australians  the  anger  of  some  Power  is  supposed  to  follow  viola- 
tion of  law.  Instructions  to  initiates  often  include  moral  relations.1 
The  connection  of  morals  with  religion  in  the  more  advanced 
peoples  is  close.  In  this  regard  a  distinction  is  to  be  made  be- 
tween the  creation  and  the  adoption  and  treatment  of  ethical  ideals. 

1162.  Ethical  codes  are  never  created  by  religion  but  are  always 
adopted  by  it  from  current  usages  and  ideas.2  Rules  respecting  the 
protection  of  life,  property,  and  the  family  are  found  everywhere 
—  they  arise  out  of  natural  social  relations,  even  the  simplest,  and 
grow  in  definiteness  and  refinement  with  the  advance  of  society, 
so  that  things  at  one  period  lawful,  and  accepted  by  religious 
authorities,  are  at  a  later  period  prohibited.3  Kindness  to  one's 
fellows  is  common  in  the  lowest  tribes,  and  in  higher  civilizations 
is  formulated  as  a  golden  rule  (Confucius,  Book  of  Tobit,  New 
Testament,  and  virtually  the  Egyptian  Ptahhotep,  the  Old  Testa- 
ment Book  of  Proverbs,  Buddha).  Truthfulness,  fidelity,  and  justice 
have  been  generally  recognized  as  things  to  be  approved  —  roughly 
defined  and  aimed  at  in  rude  communities,  more  exactly  defined 
and  more  clearly  held  up  as  ideals  in  higher  communities.  All 
these  virtues  are  taken  up  more  or  less  definitely  into  religious 
codes. 

1163.  Less  praiseworthy  customs  and  ideas  also  have  been 
indorsed  by  religious  law.  Where  sexual  license  prevails  it  is 
made  a  feature  in  religious  ritual  and  other  ceremonies  after  it  has 
become  a  part  of  social  usage  and  law.  It  is  true  that  it  is  gener- 
ally at  first  naive,  and,  being  not  illegal,  is  not  a  violation  of  rights 
and  not  immoral  in  the  sense  in  which  a  refined  age  regards  it.4 

1  See  above,  §  172. 

2  Cf.  L.  T.  Hobhouse,  Morals  in  Evolution,  part  ii,  chaps,  v-vii. 

3  An  example  is  the  Old-Hebrew  usage  respecting  marriage  with  a  half-sister  or 
with  a  wife  (not  one's  mother)  of  a  father.  Up  to  about  the  seventh  century  B.C. 
such  marriages  were  lawful  (Gen.  xx,  12  ;  2  Sam.  xiii,  13  ;  \vi.  22)  ;  later  they  were 
forbidden  (Ezek.  xxii,  10  f. ;  Lev.  xviii,  11).  Maspero  (in  the  Annuaire  de  Vecole  des 
haute s  etudes,  1896)  points  out  that  in  Egypt  marriage  between  uterine  brothers  and 
sisters  in  the  royal  family  was  not  only  legal  but  a  sacred  duty,  its  object  being  to 
maintain  the  purity  of  the  divine  blood.  4  See  above,  §§  107,  180,  219. 


578      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

But  it  tends,  even  among  savages,  to  become  socially  bad,  and, 
when  it  survives  into  times  of  higher  standards,  is  a  corrupting 
influence.  In  this  bad  form  it  was  sanctioned  by  religious  author- 
ities in  Canaan  (even  at  one  time  among  the  Hebrews),1  Greece, 
and  Syria,  and  exists  to-day  in  India  as  an  accompaniment  of  re- 
ligious worship.  The  records  of  religious  cruelty  are  familiar. 
\\ "holesale  slaughter,  persecution,  torture  have  been  abundantly 
practiced  in  the  name  of  religion.2  Many  social  institutions  (such 
as  slavery  and  polygamy)  countenanced  by  a  given  age  have  been 
adopted  in  the  religious  codes  of  the  age.  These  examples  illus- 
trate the  fact  that  religion  does  not  undertake  to  fix  the  details  of 
ethical  conduct  —  its  role  is  something  different.  This  statement 
applies  to  the  institution  of  taboo,  as  is  remarked  above 3  —  its 
ritual  rules  are  not  moral,  and  its  moral  rules  are  adopted  from 
social  usage.  It  was  influential  in  the  organization  of  society,  but 
not  in  the  way  of  adding  anything  to  the  moral  code.  In  modern 
economic  and  other  social  questions  that  have  an  ethical  side  the 
details  are  left  to  science ;  religion  contents  itself  with  insisting 
on  moral  principles  as  having  divine  authority,  and  these  principles, 
as  moral,  are  already  recognized  by  society. 

1164.  Discrepancy  between  codes  and  conduct  has  always  ex- 
isted—  few  religious  persons  live  up  to  the  standards  that  they 
regard  as  authoritative.  This  failure  concerns  not  the  sincerity  of 
the  religious  society  in  setting  up  its  standard,  but  the  conditions 
regulating  actual  conduct. 

A  natural  consequence  of  the  coexistence  of  religion  and  ethics 
in  human  life  has  been  that  each  has  influenced  the  other.  Advance 
in  the  purity  and  clearness  of  social  ethical  ideals  has  had  the  effect 
of  modifying  not  only  religious  codes  but  also  religious  dogmas. 
The  old  belief  (founded  on  the  conception  of  social  solidarity)  that 

1  Amos  ii,  7  ;  Hos.  iv,  14. 

2  The  Old  Testament  command  to  exterminate  the  Canaanites  (Deut.  vii,  2  ; 
xxv,  19 ;  Josh,  vi-xi)  is  not  historical,  that  is,  was  not  given  at  the  time  stated  or  at 
any  other  time.  The  Israelites,  in  fact,  settled  down  among  the  Canaanites  and  in- 
termarried with  them,  and  at  the  time  when  the  passages  just  cited  were  written 
(seventh  century  and  later)  there  were  no  such  alien  tribes  in  Canaan.  But  these 
passages  show  how  a  current  barbarous  custom  of  war  could  be  regarded  by  religious 
leaders  as  pleasing  to  God.  3  See  §  630  ff. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  ETHICAL  ELEMENTS  579 

a  family,  tribe,  or  nation  was  punished  by  the  deity  for  the  sin  of 
one  of  its  members  vanished  before  the  recognition  of  individual 
responsibility.  The  doctrines  of  eternal  punishment  and  vicarious 
expiatory  suffering  arc  now  rejected  by  some  religious  bodies  and 
circles  as  unjust.  When  they  are  maintained,  it  is  on  the  ground 
that  they  are  not  unjust  —  the  appeal  is  to  an  ethical  principle. 
Apart  from  the  fact  of  maintenance  or  rejection,  the  tendency  is 
to  try  all  doctrines  by  moral  standards.  If  they  are  rejected  and 
yet  stand,  or  seem  to  stand,  in  sacred  books,  then  either  the  state- 
ments of  the  books  are  interpreted  in  accordance  with  the  moral 
standards,  or  the  ethical  authority  of  the  books  is  set  aside. 

1165.  The  influence  of  religion  on  ethics  has  been  in  the  way 
not  of  modifying  codes  but  of  enforcing  existing  ideas  and  customs 
and  giving  an  impulse  to  moral  life.  It  has  commonly  furnished 
supernatural  sanctions  —  rewards  and  punishments  in  this  life  or 
in  the  other.  How  far  this  conception  has  been  effective  in  re- 
straining men  from  actual  ill-doing,  in  furthering  good  conduct, 
and  in  developing  inward  loyalty  to  the  right,  may  be  a  question. 
To  answer  this  question  would  require  such  a  collection  of  facts  as 
has  never  been  made  and  perhaps  cannot  be  made.  We  can  see 
that  the  belief  in  divine  rewards  and  punishments  has  sometimes 
been  a  real  power,  sometimes  seems  to  have  no  effect.  The  char- 
acter of  the  sanctions  varies  with  the  growth  of  refinement,  ad- 
vancing from  the  crude  savage  and  later  ideas  of  physical  pains 
and  pleasures  to  the  conception  of  moral  degradation  or  salvation. 
The  recognition  of  rewards  and  punishments  for  one's  self  as  in- 
centives to  good  living  is  not  regarded  as  immoral  if  they  are  not 
made  the  chief  motive  —  the  prevailing  view  is  that  it  is  legitimate 
to  look  for  results  of  action,  that,  however,  devotion  to  right  must 
always  be  independent  of  results  that  affect  only  the  actor.  What- 
ever the  general  effect  of  belief  in  supernatural  sanctions,  it  must 
be  concluded  that  the  existence  of  morality  in  the  world  is  not 
dependent  on  this  belief.  The  common  social  motives  for  practic- 
ing justice  and  kindness  are  so  strong  and  so  persistent  that  these 
virtues  must  always  retain  a  certain  supremacy  apart  from  men's 
religious  creeds.    The  term  '  supernatural '  is  used  above  in  the 


5 So     IXTRODUCTIOX  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

more  usual  sense  of  '  opposed  to  natural,'  but,  according  to  one 
religious  point  of  view,  all  things  are  the  direct  work  of  God,  so 
that  there  is  no  difference  between  '  natural '  and  '  supernatural,' 
and  the  real  sanctions  of  morality  are  all  the  conditions  of  life, 
external  and  internal.1 

1166.  The  most  important  elements  that  religion  (though  only 
in  its  highest  form)  has  introduced  into  ethics  are  a  grandiose  con- 
ception of  the  basis  and  nature  of  the  moral  life,  and  a  tone  of 

.tenderness  in  the  attitude  toward  the  deity  and  toward  men.  The 
moral  code  it  regards  as  the  will  of  God,  conscience  as  the  voice 
of  God,  morality  as  obedience  to  God,  all  activity  as  a  coworking 
with  God.  Nobility  is  given  to  the  good  life  by  making  it  a  part 
of  the  eternal  divine  purpose  of  the  world.  The  conception  of 
human  life  as  an  essential  factor  in  the  constitution  and  history  of 
the  world  is  common  to  religion  and  philosophy,  but  religion  adds 
the  warmth  of  personal  relation  with  the  divine  head  of  the  world. 
Into  the  philosophical  and  ethical  view  of  the  unity  of  humanity 
religion  infuses  reverence  and  affection  for  the  individual  as  being 
not  merely  one  of  the  component  parts  of  the  mass  but  a  creature 
of  God,  the  object  of  his  loving  care,  capable  of  redemption  and 
union  with  God.  Here  again,  while  there  is  no  addition  to  the 
content  of  the  ethical  code,  there  is  added  intensity  of  feeling, 
which  may  be  a  spur  to  action. 

1167.  In  the  sphere  of  religion,  as  in  all  spheres  of  human 
activity,  ideas  and  tendencies  are  embodied  in  human  personalities 
by  whom  they  are  defined,  illustrated,  and  enforced  —  not  only  in 
founders  of  religious  systems  and  other  great  leaders  of  thought, 
but  in  lesser  everyday  persons  who  commend  religion,  each  to  his 
limited  circle,  by  purity  of  life.  The  special  ethical  figures  contrib- 
uted to  history  by  religion  are  those  of  the  martyr  and  the  saint. 
The  martyr  is  one  who  bears  witness  passively  to  what  he  regards 
as  truth  at  the  cost  of  his  life ;  he  thus  differs  from  the  hero,  who 
is  a  man  of  action.  The  martyr  spirit  is  found  elsewhere  than  in 
religious  history,  but  it  is  in  this  latter  that  it  has  played  its  special 
ethical  role  —  divergencies  from  established  faiths  always  excite 

1  So,  for  example,  Butler's  Analogy. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  ETHICAL  ELEMENTS  58 1 

peculiarly  sharp  hostility.  When  it  is  pure  loyalty  to  convictions 
of  truth,  it  is  an  ethical  force  of  great  moment  —  a  permanent 
inspiration.1  It  is  less  valuable  when  it  springs  from  the  hope  of 
personal  advantage,  when  a  controlling  consideration  is  the  belief 
that  one  goes  directly  from  the  stake  (as  Moslem  warriors  believed 
they  went  from  death  in  battle)  to  celestial  happiness.  There  arose 
at  times  (for  example,  in  the  Decian  and  Diocletian  persecutions 
of  the  third  century,  and  in  Cordova  in  the  ninth  century,  when 
there  was  no  persecution)  a  fanatical  desire  for  the  honors  of 
martyrdom  that  had  to  be  checked  by  the  Church  leaders. 

1168.  The  saint  is  related  to  the  virtuous  man  as  holiness  to 
virtue.  The  difference  between  them  is  one  not  of  ethical  practice 
but  of  motive  and  sentiment  —  holiness  is  virtue  consecrated  to  the 
deity.  The  saint,  like  the  martyr,  is  often  an  ethical  power.  When 
the  title  is  given  officially  as  an  ecclesiastical  honor,  it  may  or  may 
not  carry  with  it  moral  excellence.  In  Brahmanism,  Buddhism, 
Judaism,  Christianity,  and  Islam  saintship  has  sometimes  been 
contaminated  with  physical  and  ritual  ideas  and  practices,  and  so 
far  ceases  to  have  ethical  value.2 

1169.  The  evil  influence  of  the  religious  point  of  view  on  ethical 
life  has  been  of  the  general  nature  already  referred  to  : 3  embalm- 
ing and  sanctifying  outgrown  and  injurious  social  institutions  ;  sub- 
stituting form  for  spirit ;  encouraging  asceticism  ;  drawing  sharp 
lines  of  demarcation  between  men  on  the  basis  of  religious  opinions, 
and  so  far  creating  an  antisocial  spirit. 

1170.  The  development  of  the  sense  of  obligation  to  do  right 
(conscience)  is  due  to  so  many  different  influences  that  it  is  hard 
to  say  exactly  what  part  any  one  of  these  has  taken  in  the  process. 
But  obviously  religion  has  been  an  important  factor  in  the  result 

1  It  is  an  exaggeration  to  say  (as  has  been  said)  that  the  sentiment  of  the  sacred 
obligation  of  opinion  was  first  formulated  or  created  in  the  world  by  the  early  Chris- 
tian martyrs  —  before  their  time  Socrates,  Jews  in  the  Antiochian  persecution,  and 
probably  others,  had  embodied  this  sentiment  —  but  the  Christian  devotion  helped  to 
make  it  a  generally  recognized  ethical  principle. 

-  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  Index,  s.v.  Yoga;  Pdoomfield,  Religion  of  the  Veda, 
Index,  s.v.  Baksheesh  ;  article  "•  Saint  and  Saintliness"  in  Jewish  Encyclopedia  :  Chris- 
tian hagiologies  ;  Goldziher,  Muhammedanische  Studien  :  C.  Trumelet,  Lvs  saints  de 
V Islam.  3  See  above,  §  1 163. 


582     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

so  far  reached.  By  its  distinct  connection  of  the  favor  of  the  deity 
with  conduct  it  has  tended  to  fix  attention  on  the  latter  and  to 
strengthen  the  feeling  that  righteousness  is  the  sovereign  thing. 
Though  such  regard  for  right-doing  is  at  first  mainly  egoistic,  it 
easily  becomes  an  ideal,  reverenced  for  its  own  sake,  and  more 
powerful  because  it  is  identified  with  a  person  and  colored  by  the 
sentiments  of  gratitude  and  love  that  religion  calls  forth.  Religion, 
especially  in  the  earlier  forms  of  society,  though  not  only  in  them, 
has  been  a  pedagogue  to  lead  men  to  the  acknowledgment  of  the 
supremacy  of  the  moral  law.  It  differs  from  other  such  guides 
in  the  tone  of  mingled  humility  and  enthusiasm  that  it  gives  to 
this  fealty. 

1171.  As  to  the  existence  of  moral  evil  in  the  world,  religion 
can  only  regard  it  as  the  work  of  supernatural  Powers.  In  the 
savage  period  the  question  does  not  come  up  — ■  moral  evil  is  taken 
as  a  part  of  the  nature  of  things  and  is  not  curiously  inquired  into. 
In  later  times  it  is  ascribed  to  some  malevolent  spirit  or  deity  who 
is  either  independent  of  the  supreme  deity  (as  in  certain  half-civilized 
tribes)  or  is  tolerated  by  him  (Angro  Mainyu,  Satan),  or  to  a 
subordinate  employed  by  him  (lies  put  into  the  mouths  of  prophets 
by  a  deity),1  or  to  a  quite  separate  divine  Power,  not  necessarily 
malevolent  (as  in  some  philosophical  theories).  Religion  may  adopt 
some  philosophical  explanation  —  as  that  evil  is  only  failure  to  reach 
the  good,  or  only  the  lower  step  to  which  we  look  back  from  a 
greater  height,  or  an  inevitable  accompaniment  of  a  scheme  of  life 
characterized  by  struggle  and  intended  to  recognize  the  freedom 
of  the  will  and  to  develop  moral  autonomy  —  but,  from  its  own 
resources  it  can  only  say  that  it  is  a  thing  inexplicable  by  man, 
belonging  to  a  divine  plan  that  the  devout  soul  accepts  as  right 
because  God  has  ordained  it. 

1172.  The  theory  of  man's  native  incapacity  to  do  right  (total 
depravity),  held  by  some  religious  bodies,  is  antimoral  since  it 
denies  human  freedom.  The  attempt  to  modify  it  by  the  supposi- 
tion of  divine  impartation  of  moral  power  is  inadequate  unless  such 
power  is  held  to  be  given  to  every  person,  and  this  amounts  to  an 

1  Ezek.  xiv,  g. 


SCIENTIFIC  AND  ETHICAL  ELEMENTS  583 

indirect  affirmation  of  freedom  and  denial  of  moral  impotency. 
The  theory  is,  however,  practically  innocuous,  being  rejected  or 
ignored  by  the  universal  consciousness  of  freedom. 

1173.  To  the  questions,  raised  by  philosophy,  whether  the  world 
is  essentially  good  or  bad  and  whether  life  is  worth  living,  theistic 
religion  gives  a  simple  answer:  a  perfect  God  implies  a  perfect 
universe ;  this  answer  is  germinal  and  confused  in  early  religion, 
and  is  definitely  stated  only  in  the  higher  systems.  The  great 
theistic  sacred  books,  Jewish,  Christian,  Mazdean,  and  Moslem, 
all  teach  that  though  there  are  present  limitations  and  sufferings, 
there  is  to  be  a  happy  issue  for  the  faithful  out  of  all  distresses, 
and  the  Buddhistic  view,  though  nontheistic,  is  essentially  the  same 
as  this  ;  as  for  other  persons,  they  are  sometimes  included  in  a 
final  restoration,  when  moral  evil  is  to  disappear,  sometimes  are 
excluded  from  the  happy  outcome,  but  in  both  cases  the  scheme 
of  the  world  is  regarded  as  good.  Leaving  out  of  view  the  question 
as  to  the  exact  interpretation  of  the  facts  of  life,  this  optimism  is 
ethically  useful  as  giving  cheerfulness  and  enthusiasm  to  moral  life, 
with  power  of  enduring  ills  through  the  conviction  of  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  the  right.  It  may  pass  into  a  stolid  dogmatic  ignoring 
or  denial  of  the  existence  of  evil,  and  then  tends  to  become  inhuman 
and  therefore  ethically  bad.1  It  is,  however,  commonly  saved  from 
such  an  unfortunate  result  by  common  sense  and  the  instinct  of 
sympathy.  And  it  is  so*  general  a  conception  and  its  goal  is  so 
remote  that  it  cannot  be  a  strong  and  permanent  moral  force  for 
most  persons  —  immediate  experiences  are  as  a  rule  more  powerful 
than  remote  expectations.  But,  so  far  as  it  is  a  living  faith,  religious 
optimism  is  in  the  main  a  healthy  ethical  factor  in  life. 

1  It  is  this  sort  of  insensate  optimism  that  Voltaire  ridicules  in  Candide  —  a  just 
and  useful  protest  against  a  superficial  view  of  life. 


SELECTED    LIST    OF    BOOKS    OF 
REFERENCE 

Encyclopedias  and  Dictionaries 

Encyclopaedia    Britannica    (9th    ed.,    Edinburgh;     nth    ed.,    Cambridge, 

England,  and  New  York). 
La  Grande  Encyclopedic  (Paris,  1886-1902). 
Le  Nouveau  Larousse  (Paris,  1898-1904). 
Johnson's  Universal  Cyclopaedia  (New  York,  1893-1895). 
The  New  International  Encyclopaedia  (New  York,  1905). 
Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics  (Edinburgh,  1908-         ). 
Lichtenberger.     Encyclopedic    des    sciences    religieuses    (Paris,    1877— 

1882). 
Roscher.    Ausfuhrliches  Lexikon  der  griechischen  und  romischen  Mytho- 

logie  (Leipzig,  1884-         ). 
Daremberg  et  Saglio.    Dictionnaire  des  antiquites  grecques  et  romaines 

(Paris,  1873-1884). 
Pauly-Wissowa.     Real-Encyclopadie    der   classischen    Altertumswissen- 

schaft  (new  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1904). 
Geiger    and    Kuhn.    Grundriss    der  iranischen   Philologie    (Strassburg, 

1895-1904). 
Jewish  Encyclopedia  (New  York  and  London,  1901-1906). 
Encyclopaedia  Biblica  (London  and  New  York,  1 899-1 903). 
Hastings.    Dictionary  of  the  Bible  (Edinburgh,  1900-1904). 
Hughes.    Dictionary  of  Islam  (London,  1896). 
Encyclopaedia  of  Islam  (Leiden)  (in  course  of  publication). 
Herzog-Hauck.    Real-Encyclopadie   fur  protestantische    Theologie    und 

Kirche  (Leipzig,  1895-1909). 
Hamburger.    Realencyclopadie  des  Judenthums- (2d  ed.,  Leipzig,  1S96). 
The  Catholic  Encyclopedia  (New  York,  1907-1911). 
Smith  and  Cheetham.    Dictionary   of  Christian   Antiquities   (London, 

1875). 
McClintock    and    Strong.     Cyclopaedia   of   Biblical,    Theological    and 

Ecclesiastical  Literature  (New  York,   1868-1S81). 
Meusel.    Kirchliches  Handlexikon  (Leipzig,  1887-1902). 
Wetzer    and    Welte.     Kirchenlexikon    (Freiburg   im    Breisgau,    1S82- 

J903)-  * 

585 


586      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Periodicals 

Revue  de  l'histoire  des  religions  (Paris). 

Archiv  fiir  Religionswissenschaft  (Leipzig). 

Le  Museon  et  La  Revue  des  religions  (Louvain,  1882-         ). 

Journal  asiatique  (Paris). 

Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  (London). 

Journal  of  the  Ceylon  Branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  (Colombo). 

Journal  of  the  Straits  Branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  (Singapore). 

Journal  of  the  China  Branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  (Hongkong). 

Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal  (Calcutta). 

Journal  of  the  Indian  Archipelago  and  Eastern  Asia  (Singapore). 

De  indische  Gids  (Amsterdam). 

The  Indian  Antiquary  (Bombay). 

Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh. 

Zeitschrift  der  deutschen  morgenlandischen  Gesellschaft  (Leipzig). 

Wiener  Zeitschrift  fiir  die  Kunde  des  Morgenlandes. 

Mittheilungen  der  vorderasiatischen  Gesellschaft  and  Der  alte  Orient 
(Leipzig). 

Mitteilungen  der  deutschen  Orient-Gesellschaft  (Berlin). 

Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan  (Yokohama). 

Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society  (New  Haven). 

Zeitschrift  fiir  die  Mythologie  (Gottingen). 

Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute  (London). 

Transactions  of  the  Ethnological  Society  (London). 

Man  (anthropological  monthly)  (London). 

Annals  of  Archaeology  and  Anthropology  (Liverpool  Institute  of  Archae- 
ology). 

Archaeological  Review  (London). 

Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada  (Ottawa,  Montreal,  and 
London). 

Transactions  of  the  Society  of  Biblical  Archaeology  (London). 

L' Anthropologic  (Paris). 

Revue  internationale  de  sociologie  (Paris). 

Annales  du  Musee  Guimet  (Paris). 

L'Annee  sociologique  (Paris). 

Zeitschrift  fiir  Ethnologie  (Berlin). 

Archiv  fiir  Anthropologic  (Braunschweig). 

Archaologische  Gesellschaft  (Berlin). 

Archiv  fiir  slavische  Philologie  (Berlin,  1876-         ). 

Jahreshefte  des  oesterreichischen  archaologischen  Instituts  (Vienna). 

Mitteilungen  der  anthropologischen  Gesellschaft  in  Wien. 

Anthropos,  Ephemeris  internationalis  ethnologica  et  linguistica  (Salzburg, 
1906-         ). 

Archivio  per  l'Antropologia  e  la  Etnologia  (Florence). 


SELECTED  LIST  OE  BOOKS  OE  REFERENCE      587 

Internationales  Archiv  fiir  Kthnologie  (Leiden). 
'E(pr)/j.epis  ' ApxaioXoyiK-r]  (Athens). 

American  Journal  of  Archaeology  (New  York  and  London). 
Transactions  of  the  American  Ethnological  Society  (New  York). 
The  Anthropologist  (Washington). 
American  Antiquarian  Society  (Worcester,  Mass.). 
Reports  of  the  National  Museum  (Washington). 
Reports  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  (Washington). 
Reports  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  (Washington). 
University  of  California  Publications  in  American  Archaeology  and  Ethnol- 
ogy (Berkeley). 
Revue  des  questions  historiques  (Paris). 
Revue  egyptologique  (Paris). 

Zeitschrift  fiir  aegyptische  Sprache  und  Altertumswissenschaft  (Leipzig). 
Revue  semitique  (Paris). 
Revue  du  monde  musulman  (Paris). 

American  Journal  of  Semitic  Languages  and  Literatures  (Chicago). 
Revue  d'Assyriologie  (Paris). 

Zeitschrift  fiir  Assyriologie  und  verwandte  Gebiete  (Leipzig). 
Beitrage  zur  Assyriologie  und  semitischen  Sprachwissenschaft  (Leipzig). 
Revue  des  etudes  grecques  (Paris,  1888-         ). 
Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies  (London). 
Revue  des  etudes  juives  (Paris). 
Folklore  (London). 
Folklore  Journal  (London). 
Revue  des  traditions  populaires  (Paris). 
Melusine  (mythology  and  popular  traditions)  (Paris). 
Zeitschrift  des  Vereins  fiir  Volkskunde  (Berlin). 

Ons  Volksleven  (Tijdschrift  voor  Taal-Volks-  en  Oudheidkunde)  (Brecht). 
Revue  Celtique  (Paris). 
Celtic  Review  (Edinburgh). 

Mittheilungen  der  Gesellschaft  fiir  jiidische  Volkskunde  (Breslau). 
Archivio  per  lo  studio  delle  tradizioni  popolari  (Palermo). 
International  Journal  of  Ethics  (Philadelphia  and  London). 
Hibbert  Journal  (London). 


Works  on  the  Nature  of  Religion 

Plato.   Phaedo  ;  Phaedrus  ;   Republic. 

Hume,  David.    Natural  History  of  Religion  (vol.  ii  of  Green  and  Grose's 

ed.  of  Hume's  Essays,  London,   1882) ;    Dialogues  concerning  Natural 

Religion  (ibid.). 
Kant,  Immanuel.    Religion  innerhalb  der  Grenzen  der  blossen  Yernunft 

(Konigsberg,  1793;  in  new  ed.  of  his  Works,  Berlin,  191 2). 


588      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  REIIGIONS 

Hegel,  G.  W.  F.  Philosophic  der  Religion  (Berlin,  1S32  ;  new  ed.,  Leiden, 
1890;  Eng.  tr.,  London,  1895)  (cf.  John  Caird's  Philosophy  of  Religion, 
London,  1876). 

Burnouf,  E.  La  science  des  religions  (3d  ed.,  Paris,  1S76;  Eng.  tr.,  Lon- 
don, 1SS8). 

Arnold,  Matthew.     Literature   and   Dogma  (London  and  New  York, 

1373)- 
Pfleiderer,  O.    Religionsphilosophie  auf  geschichtlicher  Grundlage  (3d 

ed.,  Berlin,  1896) ;  Eng.  tr.,  The  Philosophy  of  Religion  on  the  Basis  of 

its  History  (London,  1886) ;  Philosophy  and  Development  of  Religion 

(Edinburgh,  1899) ;  Evolution  and  Theology,  and  Other  Essays  (Eng.  tr., 
•  London  and  New  York,  1900)  ;   Religion  und  Religionen  (Munich,  1906)  ; 

Eng.  tr.,  Religion  and  Historic  Faiths  (New  York,  1907). 
Gheyn,  J.  van  dex.    La  science  des  religions  (Lyon,  18S6). 
Hartmann,  E.  von.    Religionsphilosophie  (Leipzig,  1S8S). 
Martineau,  J.    A  Study  of  Religion  (London,  1S88). 
Bender,  W.    Das  Wesen  der  Religion  (4th  ed.,  Bonn,  1888). 
Deussen,    P.     Allgemeine    Geschichte    der    Philosophic,   mit    besonderer 

Beriicksichtigung  der  Religionen  (Leipzig,  1894;  new  ed.,  1899-1911). 
Jastrow,  Morris,  Jr.    The  Study  of  Religion  (London  and  New  York, 

1901). 
Everett,  C.  C.    The  Psychological  Elements  of  Religion  (New  York  and 

London,  1902) ;  Theism  and  the  Christian  Faith  (New  York  and  London, 

1909). 
James,  William.    The  Will  to  Believe,  and  Other  Essays  (London  and 

New  York,  1897);   Varieties  of  Religious  Experience  (London  and  New 

York,  1902) ;   Pragmatism  (London  and  New  York,  1907) ;   A  Pluralistic 

Universe  (New  York,  1909). 
Royce,  Josiah.     Religious   Aspects  of  Philosophy  (Boston,   18S6)  ;    The 

World  and  the  Individual  (London  and  New  York,  1900-1901);   The 

Sources  of  Religious  Insight  (New  York,  191 2). 
Caird,  E.    Evolution  of  Religion  (London  and  New  York,  1893). 
La  Grasserie,  Raoul  de.    De  la  psychologie  des  religions  (Paris,  1899). 
Bousset,   W.     What   is   Religion  ?     (Eng.    tr.,    New   York   and    London, 

1907). 
Hoffding,  H.    Philosophy  of  Religion  (Eng.  tr.,  London  and  New  York, 

1906). 
Perry,  R.  B.    The  Approach  to  Philosophy,  chaps,  iii,  iv,  vii  (New  York, 

i9°5)- 
Santayana,  G.    Reason  in  Religion  (vol.  iii  of  his  Life  of  Reason)  (New 

York,  1905). 
King,  Irving.    Development  of  Religion  (New  York,  19 10). 
Leuba,  J.  H.    A  Psychological  Study  of  Religion  (New  York,  1912). 
Kant,  Immanuel.    Kritik  der  praktischen  Vernunft  (4th  ed.,  Riga,  1797), 

and  see  his  Collected  Works  (Berlin,  191 2-         ). 


SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE      589 

Martineau,  James.    The  Relations  between  Ethics  and  Religion  (London, 

1 881). 
Guyau,  J.  M.    Esquisse  d'une  morale  sans  obligation  ni  sanction   (Paris, 

1885;   4th  ed.,  1896;   Eng.  tr.,   London,   1898);   L'irreligion  de  l'avenir 

(Paris,  18S7). 
Palmer,  G.  H.    The  Field  of  Ethics  (Boston,  1901). 
Otto,  R.    Naturalism  and  Religion  (Eng.  tr.,  London  and  New  York,  1909). 


General  Descriptive  Works 

Cicero.    De  Fato  and  De  Natura  Deorum. 

Brosses,  C.  de.    Du  culte  des  dieux  fetiches  (Paris  or  Geneva,  1760). 

Dupuis,  C.  F.   Origine  de  tous  les  cultes,  ou  religion  universelle  (Paris, 

1794  ;  new  ed.,  1870). 
Meiners,  C.    Allgemeine  kritische  Geschichte  der  Religion  (Hannover, 

1 806-1807). 
Waitz,  T.    Anthropologic  der  Naturvolker  (Leipzig,  1S59-1872). 
Bastian,  A.    Beitrage  zur  vergleichenden  Psychologie  (Berlin,  1868). 
Muller,   Fr.   Max.    Introduction   to   the    Science   of    Religion    (2d  ed., 

London,    18S0)  ;    Natural   Religion    (London,   1890);    Physical   Religion 

(London,  1891)  ;  Anthropological  Religion  (London,  1892);  Theosophy, 

or  Psychological  Religion  (London,  1893). 
Spencer,  H.    Descriptive  Sociology  (London,  1S73-1881);  Principles  of 

Sociology  (London,  1879-1S96);  vol.  i  (on  religious  phenomena)  (New 

York,  18S2). 
Lippert,   J.     Religionen   der   europaischen    Culturvolker    (Berlin,    1881); 

Allgemeine  Geschichte  des  Priesterthums  (Berlin,  1883). 
Reville,  A.    Prolegomenes  de  l'histoire  des  religions  (Paris,  188 1  ;  Eng.  tr., 

London,  1884) ;  Les  religions  des  peuples  non-civilises  (Paris,  1883). 
Kuenen,  A.    National  Religions  and  Universal  Religions  (London,  1882). 
Clarke,  J.  F.    Ten  Great  Religions  (Boston,  1883;  popular  ed.,  1899). 
d'Alviella,  Goblet.   Introduction  a  l'histoire  generate  des  religions  (Brus- 
sels, 1SS7);  Origin  and  Growth  of  the  Conception  of  God  (London,  1892); 

Croyances,  rites,  institutions  (Paris,  19T 1). 
La  Saussaye,  P.  D.  Chantepie  de.    Lehrbuch  der  Religionsgeschichte 

(Freiburg,  1SS7-1SSS;  Eng.  tr.  of  vol.  i,  London,  1892;   2d  ed.,  1897). 
Tylor,  E.  B.    Researches  into  the  Early   History  of  Mankind  (London, 

1878);  Primitive  Culture  (3d  ed.,  London,  1891  and  1903). 
The  Hibbert  Lectures  (London  and  New  York,  1 878-1894). 
The  Gifford  Lectures  (London  and  New  York,  1S90-  ). 
Usener,  H.    Religionsgeschichtliche  Untersuchungen  (Bonn,  1SS9);  Gbt- 

ternamen  (Bonn,  1896). 
Frazer,  J.  G.    The  Golden  Bough  (London,  1890;    3d  ed.,   1906-1911); 

Early  History  of  the  Kingship  (London,  1905). 


590      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

King,  J.  II.    The  Supernatural  (London,  1892). 

Article  "  Fetishism  "  in  Hastings's  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

Trumbull,  H.C.  The  Blood-Covenant  (New  York,  1893);  The  Threshold- 
Covenant  (New  York,  1896). 

MARILLIER,  L.  La  survivance  de  Fame  et  l'idee  de  justice  chez  les  peuples 
non-civilises  (Paris,  1894)  ;  L'origine  des  dieux  [criticism  of  Grant  Allen's 
Evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God]  (Paris,  1899). 

Steinmetz,  S.  R.  Ethnologische  Studien  zur  ersten  Entwicklung  der  Strafe 
(Leiden  and  Leipzig,  1894). 

Tiele,  C.  P.  Geschichte  der  Religion  im  Alterthum  bis  auf  Alexander  den 
Grossen  (Germ,  tr.,  Gotha,  1895  ;  ed.  Gehrich,  Gotha,  1896- 1903). 

4tfE.\ziES,  A.  History  of  Religion  (London  and  New  York,  1895;  New 
York,  1906). 

Religious  Systems  of  the  World  (London,  1896;  new  ed.,  1902). 

Carpenter,  J.  E.  Place  of  Christianity  among  the  Religions  of  the  World 
(London,  1904). 

Orientalische  Religionen  (in  Die  Kultur  der  Gegenwart)  (Berlin  and  Leipzig, 
1906). 

Bloomfield,  M.  The  Symbolic  Gods  (in  Studies  in  Honor  of  B.  L.  Gilder- 
sleeve)  (Baltimore,  1902). 

Jevons,  F.  B.  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion  (London,  1896; 
2d  ed.,  1902)  ;  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Comparative  Religion  (New 
York,  1908);  The  Idea  of  God  in  Early  Religions  (Cambridge,  Eng- 
land, 19 10). 

Johnson,  Samuel.  Oriental  Religions  and  their  Relation  to  Universal 
Religion  (1872-18S5;  Boston,  1897). 

White,  A.  D.  Warfare  of  Science  with  Theology  in  Christendom  (New 
York,  1897). 

Durkheim,  E.  Definition  des  phenomenes  religieux  (in  Z' 'A  11 nee  sociologiq ue, 
ii)  (Paris,  1S97-1898). 

Allen,  Grant.  Evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God  (London  and  New  York, 
1897). 

Tiele,  C.  P.  Elements  of  the  Science  of  Religion  (Edinburgh  and  London, 
1897-1899). 

Brinton,  D.  G.  Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples  (New  York  and  London, 
1897). 

Ratzel,  F.    History  of  Mankind  (Eng.  tr.,  London,  1898). 

Lang,  A.  Custom  and  Myth  (London,  1884);  Myth,  Ritual  and  Religion 
(2d  ed.,  1899)  !  Tne  Making  of  Religion  (2d  ed.,  London,  1900). 

Andree,  R.    Die  Flutsagen  (Braunschweig,  1S91). 

Usener,  H.    Die  Sintfluthsagen  (Bonn,  1899). 

Woods,  F.  H.  Article  "Flood"  (in  Hastings's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible) 
(Edinburgh  and  New  York,   1900). 

Sutherland,  A.  The  Origin  and  Growth  of  the  Moral  Instinct  (London 
and  New  York,  1898). 


SELECTED  LIST  OE  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     591 

La  Grasserie,  RAOUL  de.  Des  religions  comparees  au  point  de  vue  socio- 
logique  (Paris,  1899). 

Ingram,  J.  K.    Outline  of  the  History  of  Religion  (London,  1900). 

Lord  Avebury  (Sir  John  Lubbock).  Prehistoric  Times  (6th  ed.,  London, 
1900). 

Hirn,  Y.    Origins  of  Art  (London,  1900). 

Ellis,  Havelock.  Studies  in  the  Psychology  of  Sex  (London,  1900;  and 
Philadelphia,  1904-1910). 

Morris,  Miss  M.  The  Economic  Study  of  Religion  (in  Journal  of  the 
American  Oriental  Society,  xxiv)  (New  Haven,  1903). 

Reinach,  S.    Cultes,  mythes  et  religions  (Paris,  1905-1908). 

Hopkins,  E.  W.  The  Universality  of  Religion  (in  Journal  of  the  America// 
Oriental  Society,  xxv)  (New  Haven,  1904). 

Jordan,  L.  H.  Comparative  Religion,  its  Genesis  and  Growth  (Edin- 
burgh,  1905). 

Dieterich,  A.  Mutter  Erde,  ein  Versuch  iiber  Volksreligion  (Leipzig  and 
Berlin,  1905). 

Farnell,  L.  R.    Evolution  of  Religion  (London  and  New  York,  1905). 

Dulaure,  J.  A.    Des  divinites  generatrices  (2d  ed.,  Paris,  1905). 

Reitzenstein,  R.    Hellenistische  Wundererzahlungen  (Leipzig,  1906). 

Cumont,  F.  Les  religions  orientales  dans  le  paganisme  romain  (Paris, 
1907;  Eng.  tr.,  Chicago,  1911). 

Hamilton,  Mary.    Incubation  (London,  1906). 

Hobhouse,  L.  T.    Morals  in  Evolution  (London  and  New  York,  1906). 

Article  "  Art "  in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics  (Edinburgh  and 
New  York,  1908). 

Perrot  and  Chipiez.  Histoire  de  Part  dans  l'antiquite  (Paris,  1 882-191 1  ; 
Eng.  tr.,  London  and  New  York,  1883-1890). 

Meyer,  Edouard.  Geschichte  des  Altertums  (2d  ed.,  Stuttgart  and  Berlin, 
1907-1909). 

Westermarck,  E.  Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas  (London, 
1908). 

Preuss,  K.  T.    Ursprung  der  Religion  und  Kunst. 

Webster,  H.  Primitive  Secret  Societies  (New  York,  1908);  Rest-Days: 
a  Sociological  Study  (reprinted  from  University  Studies)  (Lincoln,  Ne- 
braska, 191 1 ). 

Conder,  C.  R.    The  Rise  of  Man  (London  and  New  York,  190S). 

Ploss,  H.  H.  Das  Kind  (Stuttgart,  1876);  Das  Weib,  ed.  M.  Bartels 
(Leipzig,  1902). 

Hartland,  E.  S.    Primitive  Paternity  (London,  1909). 

Frazer,  J.  G.  Psyche's  Task  [influence  of  superstition  on  the  growth  of 
institutions]  (London,  1909). 

Reinach,  S.  Orpheus  (Paris,  1909;  Eng.  tr.,  revised  by  the  author,  Lon- 
don and  New  York,  1909). 

Frobenius,  L.  Childhood  of  Man  (Eng.  tr.,  London  and  Philadelphia,  1909). 


592       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Thomas,  W.  I.  Source-Book  for  Social  Origins  (Chicago  and  London,  1909). 

Marett,  R.  R.    The  Threshold  of  Religion  (London  [1909]). 

Seligmann,  S.    Der  bose  Blick  und  Verwandtes  (Berlin,  1910). 

Elworthy,  F.  T.  Article  "  Evil  Eye  "  (in  Hastings's  Encyclopaedia  of  Reli- 
gion and  Ethics). 

Boehmer,  J.    Religions-Urkunden  der  Volker  (Leipzig). 

Article  "  Cosmogony  and  Cosmology  "  in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics  (Oxford,  191 2). 

Crawley,  A.  E.  Articles  "  Cursing  and  Blessing,"  "  Dress,"  and  "  Eating 
the  God,"  ibid. 

Articles  "  Dwarfs  and  Pygmies,"  "  Dualism,"  "  Fate,"  "  Calendar,"  "  Feast- 

*  ing,"  "  Fasting,"  "  Festivals  and  Fasts,"  ibid. 

Schneider,  H.    Religion  und  Philosophic  (Leipzig,  191 2). 

Carpenter,  J.  Estlin.    Comparative  Religion  (London  and  New  York, 


1913  ?)) 


Works  on  Totemism  and  Exogamy 


Morgan,  L.  H.    Ancient  Society  (London,  1877). 

Spencer,  H.    Principles  of  Sociology,  i,  §  171  ff.  (London  and  New  York, 

1882). 
Hahn,  Ed.    Die  Haustiere  (Leipzig,  1896) ;  Demeter  und  Baubo  (Liibeck, 

1897). 
Tylor,  E.  B.    Remarks  on  Totemism,  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  In- 
stitute (1899). 
Pikler  and  Somlo.    Ursprung  des  Totemismus  (Berlin,  1900). 
Hartland,  E.  S.   Totemism  and  Some  Recent  Discoveries,  Folklore  (1900). 
Durkheim,  E.    La  prohibition  de  l'inceste  et  ses  origines,  FAnnee  socio- 

logique,  i  (Paris,  1896-1897) ;    Sur  le  totemisme,  FAnnee  soaologique,  v 

(1900-1901). 
Zapletal,  V.  Totemismus  und  die  Religion  Israels  (Freiburg  (Swiss),  1901). 
Hill-Tout,  C.     Origin   of   Totemism  among   the   Aborigines   of  British 

Columbia,  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada  (2d  Series,  1901- 

1902  and  1 903-1 904). 
Smith,  W.  R.    Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia  (2d  ed.,  London, 

1903)   (criticized  by  Noldeke    in   Zeitschrift  der   dentschen    morgenlau- 

dischen  Gesellschaft,  1886). 
Lang,  A.    Social  Origins  (London,  1903);   Secret  of  the  Totem  (London, 

1905);    Australian   Problems    (in   Anthropological  Essays  presented   to 

Tylor)  (Oxford,  1907). 
Jevuns,  F.  B.    Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion  (2d  ed.,  London, 

1902). 
Marillier,  L    La  place  du  totemisme  dans  revolution  religieuse  [criticism 

of  Jevons],  Revue  de  Vhistoire  des  religions,  xxxvi,  xxxvii  (Paris,  1897- 

1898) ;  article  "  Totem  "  (in  La  Grande  Encyclopedic)  (Paris,  1S86-1902). 


SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     593 

Wundt,  \Y.  Mythus  und  Religion  (in  his  Volkerpsychologie,  Leipzig, 
190S-1910). 

Crawley,  A.  E.  Exogamy  and  the  Mating  of  Cousins  (in  Essays  presented 
to  Tylor,  Oxford,  1907). 

Rivers,  W.  H.  H.  On  the  Origin  of  the  Classificatory  System  of  Relation- 
ships (in  Essays  presented  to  Tylor,  1907). 

Thomas,  N.  W.  La  survivance  du  culte  totemique  .  .  .  dans  le  pays  de 
Galles,  Revue  de  Vhistoire  des  religions,  xxxviii  (Paris);  Origin  of  Exog- 
amy (in  Essays  presented  to  Tylor,  Oxford,  1907). 

GOMME,  G.  L.    Totemism  in  Britain,  Archaeological  Review  (London,  1889). 

Goldenweiser,  A.  A.  Totemism,  an  Analytical  Study,  Journal  of  A  meri- 
can  Folklore  (Boston  and  New  York,  19 10). 

Frazer,  J.  G.    Totemism  and  Exogamy  (London,  1910). 


Works  on  Taboo 

Frazer,  J.  G.    Article  "Taboo"  (in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  9th  ed.). 
Crawley,  A.  E.    Mystic  Rose  (London,  1902);   Exogamy  and  the  Mating 

of  Cousins  (in  Essays  presented  to  Tylor,  Oxford,  1907). 
Genxep,  A.  van.    Tabou  et  totemisme  a  Madagascar  (Paris,  1904). 
Hodson,  T.  C.    The  Genna  amongst  the  Tribes  of  Assam,  Journal  of  the 

Anthropological  Institute,  xxxvi  (London,  1906). 
Marillier,  L.    Article  "Tabou"  (in  La  Grande  Encyclopedic)  (Paris). 
Tylor,  E.  B.     Early   History   of   Mankind,   p.  129  ff.     (3d   ed.,   London, 

1878). 
Frazer,  J.  G.    Lectures  on  the  Early  History  of  the  Kingship  [holds  that 

taboo  is  a  negative  magic]  (London,  1905) ;  Taboo  and  the  Perils  of  the 

Soul  (part  ii  of  3d  ed.  of  the  Golden  Bough)  (London,  191 1). 
Ma rett,  R.  R.  Is  Taboo  a  Negative  Magic  ?  (in  Essays  presented  to  Tylor) 

(Oxford,  1907)  [reply  to  Frazer]. 
Thomas,  N.  W.    Article  "Taboo"  (in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  nth  ed.). 
Gait,  E.  A.    Article  "  Caste  "  (in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics) 

(Edinburgh  and  New  York,  191 1). 
Taylor,  R.    New  Zealand  (London,  1S70). 
Alexander,  W.  D.    Brief  History  of  the  Hawaiian  People  (New  York, 

1892). 

The  Hebrew  Sabbath  as  a  Taboo  Day 

Toy,  C.  H.  The  Earliest  Form  of  the  Hebrew  Sabbath,  Journal  of  Bibli- 
cal Literature  (Boston,  1899). 

Driver,  S.  R.  Article  "Sabbath"  (in  Hastings's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible) 
(Edinburgh  and  New  York,  1902). 

Pinches,  T.  G.  Sapattu,  the  Babylonian  Sabbath,  Proceedings  of  the  So- 
ciety of  Biblical  Arc /neology  (London,  1904). 


594      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

ZlMMERN,  H.  Comments  on  Pinches's  article,  Zeitschrift  der  deutschen 
morgenlandischen  Gesellschaft  (Leipzig,  1904). 

Meinhold,  J.    Sabbat  und  Woche  in  Alten  Testament  (Gottingen,  1905). 

Webster,  H.  Rest  Days :  a  Sociological  Study,  University  Studies  (Lin- 
coln, Nebraska,  191 1). 


On  Magic 

Articles   in   La  Grande   Encyclopedic   (Paris) ;    Encyclopaedia   Britannica 

(London,  nth  ed.)  ;  Daremberg  and  Saglio,  Dictionnaire  des  antiquites 

grecques  et  romaines  (Paris). 
Tylor,  E.  B.    Researches  into  the  Early  History  of  Mankind,  p.  129  (3d  ed., 

London,  1878);   Primitive  Culture,  Index,  s.v.  (3d  ed.,  London,  1891). 
King,  J.  H.    The  Supernatural,  bk.  ii,  chap,  iii  f.  (London,  1892). 
Davies,  T.  Witton.      Magic,    Divination,    and    Demonology    (London, 

1898). 
Tiele,  C.  P.    Elements  of  the  Science  of  Religion,  Index,  s.v.  (Edinburgh 

and  London,  1899). 
JEVONS,  F.  B.  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion,  Index,  s.v.  (London, 

1896;  2d  ed.,  1902). 
Lang,  A.    Magic  and  Religion  (London,  1901). 
Hobhouse,  L.  T.    Morals  in  Evolution,  Index,  s.v.  (London  and  New  York, 

1906). 
PIaddon,  A.  C.    Magic  and  Fetishism  (London,  1906). 
Westermarck,  E.   Origin  and  Development  of  the  Moral  Ideas,  Index,  s.v. 

(London,  1908). 
Hubert  and  Mauss.    In  V Annie  sociologiqne,  vii  (Paris,  1 902-1903). 
Reinach,  S.    Orpheus,  Index,  s.v.  (Paris,  1909  ;  Eng.  tr.,  London  and  New 

York,  1909). 
Frazer,  J.  G.    Early  History  of  the  Kingship,  Index,  s.v.  (London,  1905). 
Marett,  R.  R.    Is  Taboo  a  Negative  Magic?  (in  Anthropological  Essays 

presented  to  E.  B.  Tylor)  (Oxford,  1907). 
Harrison,  Miss  J.  E.   Chap,  iv  of  her  Themis  (Cambridge,  England,  191 2). 

Egypt 
Erman,  A.    Life  in  Ancient  Egypt  (Eng.  tr.,  London,  1894). 
Budge,  E.  A  Wallis.    Egyptian  Magic  (London,  1899). 
Wiedemann,  A.    Magie  und  Zauberei  im  alten  Aegypten  (Leipzig,  1905). 
Breasted,  J.  H.    History  of  Egypt,  Index,  s.v.  (New  York,  1905). 

Babylonia  and  Assyria 
King,  L.  W.    Babylonian  Magic  and  Sorcery  (London,  1S96). 
Jastrow,  M.    Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  (Boston,  1898);  Religion 

Babyloniens  und  Assyriens  (Giessen,  1906-         ). 
Fossey,  Ch.    La  magie  assyrienne  (Paris,  1902). 


SELECTED  LIST  OE  BOOKS  OE  REFERENCE     595 

Jewish 

Articles  in  Encyclopaedia  Biblica  (London  and  New  York);    Hastings's, 

Dictionary  of  the  Bible  (Edinburgh  and  London) ;  Jewish  Encyclopedia 

(New  York  and  London). 
Schurer,  E.    Geschichte  des  judischen  Volkes  im  Zeitalter  Jesu  Christi 

(3d  ed.,  Leipzig,  1901  ;  Eng.  tr.,  History  of  the  Jewish  People  in  the  Time 

of  Jesus  Christ,  Index,  s.v.  (New  York,  1891). 
Blau,  L.    Das  alt-jiidische  Zauberwesen  (Strassburg,  1898). 

Arabia  and  Modern  Egypt 

Wellhatjsen,  J.    Reste  arabischen  Heidentumes,  Index,  s.v.  (Berlin,  1897). 
Lank,  E.  W.    The  Thousand  and  One  Nights,  Index  (London,  1883). 

Finnish 

Castrex,  M.  A.    Finnische  Mythologie  (Germ,  tr.,  St.  Petersburg,  1853). 
India 

Bloomfield,  M.    Eng.  tr.  of  the  Atharva-Veda  (in  Sacred  Books  of  the 

East)  (Oxford). 
Hopkins,  E.  \V.   Religions  of  India,  Index,  s.v.  (Boston  and  London,  1895). 

Greek 

Harrison,  Miss  J.  E.  Themis,  a  Study  of  the  Social  Origins  of  Greek 
Religion  (Cambridge,  England,  191 2). 

Roman 

Apuleius.    Metamorphoses. 

Friedlander,  L.  Darstellungen  aus  der  Sittengeschichte  Roms  (8th  ed., 
Leipzig,  1910);  Eng.  tr.,  Roman  Life  and  Manners  under  the  Early 
Empire,  Index  (London  and  New  York,  ca.  1903). 

Wissowa,  G.    Religion  und  Kultus  der  Romer  (Munchen,  1902). 

Fowler,  W.  W.  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People,  Index  (Lon- 
don, 191 1). 

Teutonic 

La  Saussaye,  P.  D.  Chantepie  de.  Religion  of  the  Teutons,  Index,  s.v. 
(Boston  and  London,  1902). 

Noncivilized  Peoples 

Ellis,  A.  B.  Tshi  (London,  1887) ;  Ewe  (London,  1890) ;  Yoruba  (London, 
1894). 

Codrington,  R.  II.    The  Melanesians,  Index,  s.v.  (Oxford,  1S91). 

Spencer  and  Gillen.  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia  (London,  1S99) ; 
Northern  Tribes  of  Central  Australia  [the  Intichiuma  ceremonies]  (Lon- 
don, 1904). 

Howitt,  A.  W.    Native  Tribes  of  South-East  Australia  (London,  1904). 


596      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Hollis,  A.  C.  The  Masai,  Index  (Oxford,  1905) ;  The  Nandi,  Index  (Oxford, 

1909). 
Westermarck,  E.    L'ar,  or  the  Transference  of  Conditional  Curses  in 

Morocco  (in  Essays  presented  to  Tylor)  (Oxford,  1907). 
Seligmann,  C.  G.   Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea,  Index  (Cambridge, 

England,  1910). 
Brown,  G.    Melanesians  and  Polynesians,  Index  (London,  1910). 
Dixon,  R.  B.    The  Northern  Maidu  (New  York,  1905) ;  The  Shasta  (New 

York,  1907). 
Skeat,  W.  \V.    Malay  Magic  (London,  1900). 
Rivers,  W.  H.  H.    The  Todas  (London,  1906). 
Crooke,  W.     Popular   Religion  and  Folklore  of  Northern  India,  Index 

(London,  1896). 
Teit,  J.    Traditions  of  the  Thompson  River  Indians  of  British  Columbia, 

Index  (Boston  and  New  York,  1898). 
Bell,  H.  H.  J.    Obeah :   Witchcraft  in  the  West  Indies  (2d  ed.,  London, 

i893)- 

On  Divination 

La  Grande  Encyclopedic  (Paris),  article  "  Divination." 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica  (nth  ed.),  articles  "  Divination"  and  "Oracle." 
Encyclopaedia  Biblica  (London  and  New  York),  article  "  Divination." 
Hastings's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible  (Edinburgh  and  New  York),  articles 

"  Divination  "  and  "  Soothsaying." 
Jewish    Encyclopedia   (New    York    and    London),    articles   "  Divination," 

"  Astrology,"  "  Necromancy." 
Cicero.    De  Divinatione. 

Plutarch.    De  Pythiae  Oraculis  ;  De  Defectu  Oraculorum. 
Manilius.    Astronomica  (ed.  Theod.  Breiter,  Leipzig,  1907-1908). 
Firmicus  Maternus.    Matheseos  Libri  viii  (ed.  Pruckner,  Basel,  1551) ; 

bks.  i-iv  and  bk.  v,  proem  (ed.  Kroll  and  Skutch,  Leipzig,  1897). 
Tylor,  E.  B.    Primitive  Culture,  Index  (London,  1S91). 
King,  J.  H.    The  Supernatural  (London,  1892). 

Erman,  A.    Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion  (Eng.  tr.,  London,  1907). 
Jastrow,  M.,  Jr.   Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  (Boston  and  London, 

1898;  and  the  German  ed.,  Giessen,  1906-         );  Aspects  of  Religious 

Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria  (New  York  and  London, 

1911). 
Hopkins,  E.  W.    Religions  of  India,  pp.  256,  328  (Boston  and  London, 

1895). 
Stengel  and  Oemichen.     Die  griechischen   Sakralaltertumer  (Munich, 

1890). 
Bouche-Leclercq.     Histoire    de    la   divination    dans    l'antiquite    (Paris, 

1879-1882) ;  L'astrologie  grecque  (Paris,  1899). 


SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     597 

Daremberg  and  Saglio.  Dictionnaire  des  antiquites  grecques  et  ro- 
maines,  articles  "  Divinatio"  and  "  Haruspices  "  (Paris,  1873-1884). 

Farnell,  L.  R.  Cults  of  the  Greek  States,  iv,  179  ff.  (Oxford,  1896-1909) 
(Oracles);  Greece  and  Babylon,  Index,  s.v.  (Edinburgh,  191 1). 

Gardner  and  Jevons.    Greek  Antiquities  (London,  1895). 

Wissowa,  G.    Religion  und  Kultus  der  Romer  (Munchen,  1902). 

FowLER,  W.  W.  Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People  (London, 
1911). 

Article  "Sibylla"  (by  Buchholz  in  Roscher's  Lexikon). 

Cumont,  Fr.  Astrology  and  Religion  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
(New  York  and  London,  191 2). 

Wellhausen,  J.    Reste  arabischen  Heidentumes  (Berlin,  1897). 

Article  "  Celts"  in  Hastings's  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics  (Edin- 
burgh and  New  York,  191 1). 

La  Saussaye,  P.  D.  Chantepie  de.  Religion  of  the  Teutons,  Index 
(Boston  and  London,   1902). 

Groot,  J.  J.  M.  de.    Religious  System  of  China  (Leiden,  1892-1907). 

Articles  "  Ancestor-worship,"  "  Ahoms,"  "  Bantu  "  in  Hastings's  Encyclo- 
paedia of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

Turner,  G.    Samoa,  Index  (London,  18S4). 

Furness,  W.  H.  3d.  Home  Life  of  Borneo  Head-hunters  (Philadelphia, 
1902). 

Rivers,  W.  H.  H.    The  Todas,  Index  (London,  1906). 

Thurston,  E.  Omens  and  Superstitions  of  Southern  India  (London,  191 2). 

Ellis,  A.  B.    Tshi  (London,  1887). 

Callaway,  H.    Religious  System  of  the  Amazulu  (Natal,  1S6S-1S70). 

Article  "  Dreams  and  Sleep  "  in  Hastings's  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics. 

On  Folklore 

See  periodicals  mentioned  above,  p.  587. 

Frazer,  J.  G.    Golden  Bough  (3d  ed.,  London,  191 1). 

Keightly,  T.    Fairy  Mythology  (2d  ed.,  London,  1850). 

MacCulloch,   J.   A.    Article   "Fairy"    (in    Hastings's   Encyclopaedia   of 

Religion  and  Ethics). 
Mannhardt,  J.  W.  E.    Wald-  und  Feldkulte  (Berlin,  1S77). 
History  of  the  iEsopic  Fable  (in  Caxton's  ^Esop,  ed.  Jos.  Jacob)  (London, 

1889). 
Jacobs,  J.    Migration  of   Fables  (Introduction  to  his  Fables  of  Pilpay) 

(London,  1888);  Fables  of  /Esop  (London,  1894). 
Hartland,  E.  S.    Science  of  Fairy  Tales  (London,  1S91) ;  Folk-lore,  what 

is  it?    (London,  1897);   Mythology  and  Folktales  (London,  1900). 
Gomme,  G.  L.     Ethnology  in  Folklore  (London,   1S92) ;    Folklore   as   an 

Historical  Science  (London,  ^908). 


598       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Gennep,  A.  van.    La  formation  des  legendes  (Paris,  1910). 

Bibliotheca  Diabolica  (New  York,  1874). 

Carus,  P.    History  of  the  Devil  and  of  the  Idea  of  Evil  (Chicago,  1900). 

Oceania 
Batchelor,  J.    The  Ainu  and  their  Folklore  (London,  1901). 
Seidexagel,  C.  W.    Language  spoken  by  the  Bontoc-Igorot  [of  Luzon] 

(Chicago,  1909). 
Emerson,  N.  B.    Unwritten  Literature  of  Hawaii  (Washington,  1909). 

America 

Boas,  F.  Dissemination  of  Tales  among  the  Natives  of  North  America, 
Journal  of  American  Folklore,  iv  (Boston,  1891);  Indianische  Sagen 
von  der  nordpacifischen  Kiiste  Nord-Amerikas  (Berlin,  1895). 

Dorsey,  G.  A.  The  Dwamish  Indian  Spirit  Boat,  Bulk  tin  of  Philadelphia 
Free  Museum  of  Science  and  Art  (1902). 

Egypt 
Maspero,  G.    Les  contes  populaires  de  l'figypte  ancienne  (Paris,  1882). 
Wiedemann,  A.    Altagyptische  Sagen  und  Marchen  (Leipzig,  1906). 

Asia 

Benfey,  Th.  The  Pantschatantra  (Leipzig,  1859)  ;  Introduction  to  Bick- 
ell's  ed.  of  the  Kalilag  andTJamnag  (Leipzig,  1876). 

Keith-Falconer,  F.  G.  N.  Eng.  tr.  of  Wright's  ed.  of  the  Late  Syriac 
Kalilah  and  Dimnah  (Cambridge,  England,  1S85). 

Crooke,  W.  Popular  Religion  and  Folklore  of  Northern  India,  West- 
minster (London,  1896). 

Thurston,  Edgar.  Omens  and  Superstitions  of  Southern  India  (London, 
1912). 

The  Jesup  North  Pacific  Expedition  (New  York  and  Leiden,  1900-         ). 

Bogoras,  W.  The  Folklore  of  North-Eastern  Asia  as  compared  with  that 
of  North- Western  America,  American  Anthropologist  (Washington,  1902). 

Cosquin,  E.  Origine  et  propagation  des  contes  populaires  europeens  (in 
his  Contes  populaires  de  la  Lorraine)  (Paris,  1886)  ;  Le  lait  de  la  mere  et 
le  coffre  flottant  (reprint  from  Revue  de  questions  historiqnes)  (Paris, 
1908)  ;  Le  prologue-cadre  des  Mille  et  Une  Nuits,  les  legendes  perses  et 
le  livre  d'Esther  (Paris,  1909). 

Africa 
Theal,  G.  M.    Kaffir  Folklore  (London  [1872]). 

Bleek,  W.  H.  I.    Specimens  of  Bushman  Folklore  (Eng.  tr.,  London,  1911). 
Rivers,  W.  H.  H.   The  Todas,  Index,  s.vv.  Folklore,  Mythology  (London 

and  New  York,  1906). 
Hollis,   A.  C.    The   Masai,  Index   (Oxford,   1905);    The   Nandi,   Index 

(Oxford,  1909). 


SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE 


599 


Europe 

Grimm,  W.    Die  deutsche  Heldensage  (1829;  3d  ed.,  Gottingen,  1889). 

Wuttke,  A.  Der  deutsche  Volksaberglaube  der  Gegenwart  (3d  ed.,  Ber- 
lin, 1900). 

Rhys,  J.    Celtic  Folklore  (Oxford,  1901). 

Campbell,  J.  F.  Popular  Tales  of  the  West  Highlands  and  Heroic  Gaelic 
Ballads  (1872;  new  ed.,  Edinburgh,  1890-1893). 

Brand,  J.    Popular  Antiquities  of  Great  Britain  (new  ed.,  London,  1905). 

Sebillot,  P.    Le  folklore  de  France  (Paris,  1904-1907). 

Maury,  L.  F.  A.  Croyances  et  legendes  du  moyen  age  (new  ed.,  Paris, 
1896). 

Geldart,  E.  M.    Folklore  of  Modern  Greece  (London,  18S4). 

Krauss,  F.  S.  Volksglaube  und  religioser  Brauch  der  Sudslaven  (Vienna, 
18S5;   Miinster,  1890). 

Knowlson,  T.  S.    Origin  of  Popular  Superstitions  (London,  1910). 

Wlislocki,  H.  von.  Volksglaube  und  religioser  Brauch  der  Zigeuner 
(Miinster  i.  W.,  1891);  Volksglaube  und  religioser  Brauch  der  Magyaren 
(Miinster  i.  W.,  1S93). 

On  Mythology 
General 

Articles  in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  (nth  ed.)  and  La  Grande  Encyclo- 
pedic (Paris). 
Muller,   K.  O.     Prolegomena  zu    einer   wissenschaftlichen    Mythologie 

(Gottingen,  1825). 
Muller,  F.  Max.    Comparative  Mythology  (1S56;  in  vol.  ii  of  Chips  from 

a  German  Workshop,  London,  1858;  New  York,  1869). 
Breal,  M.    Melanges  de  mythologie  et  de  linguistique  (Paris,  1877). 
Pfleiderer,  O.    Religionsphilosophie  auf  geschichtlicher  Grundlage  (3d 

ed.,  Berlin,  1896;  Eng.  tr.,  London,  1886). 
Tylor,  E.  B.    Early  History  of  Mankind  (London,  1878) ;  Primitive  Culture 

(3d.  ed.,  London,  1891). 
Vignioli,  T.    Myth  and  Science  (London,  1882). 
La  Saussaye,  P.  D.  Chantepie  de.    Lehrbuch  der  Religionsgeschichte 

(1st  ed.,  Freiburg,  1SS7-1S89)  ;  Eng.  tr.  of  vol.  i  (London  and  New  York 

1891). 
Lang,  A.    Myth,  Ritual  and  Religion  (2d  ed.,  London,  1S99) ;  Custom  and 

Myth  (London,  1901). 
Gardner,  P.    Origins  of  Myth  (Oxford,  1896). 
Tiele,  C.  P.     Ue  Oorsprong  van  myth  en  godsdienst,    Theologisch    Tijd- 

schrift,  iv  (Amsterdam  and  Leiden) ;  Elements  of  the  Science  of  Religion, 

Index,  s.vv.  Mythology,  Myths  (Edinburgh  and  London,  1 897-1 S99). 
Jevons,  F.  B.    Introduction  to  the   History  of  Religion  (2d  ed.,  London, 

1902). 


600      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Reville,  J.  De  la  complexite  des  mythes  et  des  legendes,  Revue  de 
Phistoire  des  religions,  xiii  (Paris). 

Jastrow,  M.    Study  of  Religion  (London  and  New  York,  1901). 

Schultz,  H.  Old  Testament  Theology,  Introduction  (Eng.  tr.  of  4th  Germ, 
ed.,  Edinburgh,  1S92). 

Articles  "Demons  and  Spirits,"  "Earth,  Earth-gods"  in  Hastings's  Ency- 
clopaedia of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

Special 
Taylor,  R.    New  Zealand  (London,  1S70). 

Bulow,  W.    Die  samoansche  Schopfungssaga,  Internationales  Archiv  fur 
%    Ethnologie,  xii  (Leiden). 

Bastian,  A.    Die  samoanische  Schopfungssage  (Berlin,  1894). 
Alexander,  W.  D.    Brief  History  of  the  Hawaiian  People  (New  York, 

1892). 
Turner,  G.    Samoa  (London,  1884). 
Brixton,  D.  G.    American  Hero-Myths  (Philadelphia,  1SS2) ;   Myths  of  the 

New  World  (New  York,  1896). 
Ehrenreich,  P.    Mythen  und  Legenden  der  siidamerikanischen  Urvolker 

(Berlin,  1905). 
Castren,  M.  A.    Finnische  Mythologie  (Germ,  tr.,  St.  Petersburg,  1853). 
Cox,  G.  W.    Mythology  of  Aryan  Nations  (London,  1887). 
Meyer,  E.  H.    Germanische  Mythologie  (Berlin,  1S91). 
Gruppe,  O.    Griechische  Mythologie  (Miinchen,  1897-1906). 
Jastrow,  M.    Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  (Boston  and   London, 

1898). 
Muir,   John.     Original   Sanskrit   Texts   (London  and   Edinburgh,   185S- 

1S70). 
Hopkins,  E.  W.    Religions  of  India  (Boston  and  London,  1895). 
Macdonell,  A.  A.    Vedic  Mythology  (Strassburg,  1897). 
Farnell,  L.  R.    Cults  of  the  Greek  States  (Oxford,  1896-1909). 
Grimm,  J.    Deutsche  Mythologie  (4th  ed.,  Berlin,   1S75-187S) ;   Eng.  tr., 

Teutonic  Mythology  (London,  1888). 
La  Saussaye,  P.  D.  Chantepie  de.     Religion   of   the    Teutons,    Index 

(Boston  and  London,  1902). 
Campbell,  J.  F.    The  Celtic  Dragon-Myth  (Edinburgh,  191 1). 
Articles  "  Celts,"  "  Cuchulainn  Cycle,"  "  Feinn  Cycle  "  in  Hastings's  Ency- 
clopaedia of  Religion  and  Ethics. 
Collignon,  M.    Manual  of  Mythology  in  Relation  to  Greek  Art  (translated 

and  enlarged  by  Jane  E.  Harrison)  (London,  1899). 
Article  "  Female  Principle "  in  Hastings's  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 

Ethics. 
Curtin,  J.    Myths  of  the  Modocs  (Boston,  191 2). 
Article  "  Animal  "  [on  cults  of  animals,  plants,  stones,  waters]  in  La  Grande 

Encyclopedic,  section  iv,  "  Mythology"  (Paris). 


SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     6oi 

Thomas,    N.    W.     Article    "Animals"    (in    Hastings's    Encyclopaedia   of 

Religion  and  Ethics);  Article  "Animal-Worship"  (in  Encyclopaedia  Bri- 

tannica,  i  ith  ed.). 
TYLOR,  E.  B.    Primitive   Culture,  Index,  s.vv.   Stock-  and  Stone-Worship ', 

Mountain^  River-Worship  (London,  1891). 
Cooke,    S.    A.     Article   "Tree-Worship"    (in    Encyclopaedia    Britannica, 

nth  ed.). 
American  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  16th  Annual  Report  (Washington). 
Smith,  W.  R.    Religion  of  the  Semites,  lecture  v  (new  ed.,  London,  1894). 
Erman,  A.     Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion,  Index  (Eng.  tr.,  London, 

1907). 
Steindorff,   G.    Religion    of    the    Ancient    Egyptians   (New   York    and 

London,   1905). 
Jastrow,  M.,  Jr.    Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  pp.  662  f.,  688  f. 

(Boston,   1898). 
Garstang,  J.    Land  of  the  Hittites,  Index  (London,  19 10). 
Hopkins,  E.  W.    Mythological  Aspects  of  Trees  and  Mountains  in  the 

Great  Epic,  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society  (September,  1910)  ; 

The  Sacred  Rivers  of  India  (in  Studies  presented  to  C.  H.  Toy)  (New 

York,  191 2). 
Gubernatis,  A.  de.    Zoological  Mythology  (London,  1872);  La  mytholo- 

gie  des  plantes  (Paris,  1 878-1882). 
Fergusson,  James.    Tree-  and  Serpent- Worship  (2d  ed.,  London,  1873). 
Crooke,  W.    Popular  Religion  and  Folklore  of  Northern  India  (London, 

1896). 
Hos  and  McDougall.    Relation  between  Man  and  Animals  in  Sarawak, 

Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xxxi  (London). 
Ellis,  A.  B.    Ewe,  pp.  49  f.,  98  (London,  1890). 

Boetticher,  K.    Baumkultus  der  Hellenen  und  Romer  (Berlin,  1856). 
Gruppe,  O.    Die  griechischen  Culte  und  Mythen  (Leipzig,  1887). 
Overbeck,  J.    Das  Cultusobject  bei  den  Griechen  in  seinen  altesten  Ge- 

staltungen,    Berichte    der    sachsischen    Gesellschaft    der    Wissenchaften, 

p.  121  ff.  (1S64). 
Ohnefalsch-Richter,  M.    Kypros,  the  Bible  and  Homer  (London,  1893). 
Wellhausen,  J.    Reste  arabischen  Heidentumes,  Index  (Berlin,  1897). 
Hughes,  T.  P.    Dictionary  of  Islam,  Index,  s.v.  Kaaba  (2d  ed.,  London, 

1896).  ' 
La  Saussaye,   P.   D.   Chantepie  de.    Religion  of  the  Teutons,   Index, 

s.v.  Tree-Worship  (Boston  and  London,  1902). 
Mannhardt,  W.    Baumkultus  der  Germanen  und  ihrer  Nachbarstamme 

(Berlin,  1S75). 
Frazer,  J.  G.    Golden  Bough,  Index,  s.v.  Tree-Worship  (London,  1907); 

Adonis  Attis  Osiris,  Index,  s.vv.  Animals,   Water,  and  p.  158  (London, 

1907). 
Articles  "  Asherah  "  and  "  Pillar"  in  Hastings's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible. 


602       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Articles  "  Asherah  "  and  "  Massebah  "  in  Encyclopaedia  Biblica. 
Trumbull,  H.  C.    Threshold  Covenant,  p.  228  (New  York,  1S96). 
Hartland,  E.  S.    Primitive  Paternity,  Index,  s.v.  Trees  (London,  19 10). 
Philpot,  Mrs.  J.  H.    The  Sacred  Tree,  or  the  Tree  in  Religion  and  Myth 
(London,  1897). 

Works  on  Particular  Religions 

Egyptian 

Plutarch,  Isis  and  Osiris. 

Rawlinson,  G.    History  of  Ancient  Egypt  (London  and  New  York,  1881). 
Tiele,  C.  P.    History  of  the  Egyptian  Religion  (Eng.  tr.,  Boston,  1SS2). 
*Le  Page  Renouf,  P.    Religion  of  Ancient  Egypt  (London,  1884). 
Brugsch,  H.    Religion  und  Mythologie  der  alten  Aegypter  (1884). 
Meyer,  Ed.    Geschichte  des  alten  Aegyptens  (Berlin,  1887). 
Maspero,  G.    Etudes  de  mythologie  et  d'archeologie  egyptiennes  (Paris, 

1893);   The  Dawn  of  Civilization  (Eng.  tr.,  London,  1896). 
Muller,  W.  Max.    Asien  und  Europa  (Leipzig,  1S93);  Article  "Egypt" 

(in  Encyclopaedia  Biblica). 
Wiedemann,  K.  A.    Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians  (London,  1897) ; 

Egyptian  Doctrine  of  Immortality  (London,  1895);  Religion  of  Egypt  (in 

Hastings's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  vol.  v)  (1904). 
Petrie,  W.  M.  F.    Religion  and  Conscience  in  Ancient  Egypt   (London, 

1898);    Article   "Egyptian    Religion"    (in    Hastings's   Encyclopaedia  of 

Religion  and  Ethics). 
.Steindorff,  G.    Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians  (New  York  and  Lon- 
don, 1905). 
Erman,  A.  Aegypten  und  aegyptisches  Leben  im  Altertum  (1887) ;  Eng.  tr., 

Life  in  Ancient  Egypt  (London,  1894) ;   Handbook  of  Egyptian  Religion 

(Eng.  tr.,  London,  1907). 
Breasted,  J.  H.   History  of  Egypt  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Persian 

Conquest  (New  York,  1905) ;  Development  of  Religion  and  Thought  in 

Ancient  Egypt  (New  York,  191  2). 
Cumont,  F.    The  Religion  of  Egypt  (Eng.  tr.,  in  The  Open  Court,  Chicago, 

September,  1910). 
Reitzenstein,  R.    Poimandres  (Leipzig,  1904). 
Foucart,  G.    Article  "  Dualism  (Egyptian)  "  (in  Hastings's  Encyclopaedia 

of  Religion  and  Ethics). 

General  Semitic 
Baudissin,  W.  W.    Studien  zur  semitischen  Religionsgeschichte  (Leipzig, 

1876-1878). 
Halevy,  J.    Melanges  de  critique  et  d'histoire  relatifs  aux  peuples  semi- 

tiques  (Paris,  1883). 
Baethgen,   Fr.     Beitrage    zur   semitischen    Religionsgeschichte    (Berlin, 

1888L 


SELECTED  LIST  OE  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     603 

NoLDEKE,   Til.     Sketches  from   Eastern    History   (Eng.   tr.,    London   and 

Edinburgh,  1892). 
Muller,  W.  Max.    Asien  und  Europa  (Leipzig,  1893). 
Smith,  W.  R.    Religion  of  the  Semites  (2d  ed.,  London,  1894);    Kinship 

and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia  (2d  ed.,  London,  1903). 
BARTON,  G.  A.    A   Sketch  of  Semitic  Origins  (New  York  and  London, 

1902). 
Curtiss,  S.  I.    Primitive  Semitic  Religion  To-day  (London,  1902). 
Lagrangk,  M.  J.    Etudes  sur  les  religions  semitiques  (2d  ed.,  Paris,  1905). 

Arabian 

Sale,  G.  Preliminary  Discourse  to  Translation  of  the  Koran  (1734 ;  new 
ed.,  London,  1857)  (and  in  Wherry's  Commentary  on  the  Quran,  Lon- 
don, 1SS2). 

Sprenger,  A.  Das  Leben  und  die  Lehre  des  Mohammeds  (Berlin,  1861- 
1865). 

Syed,  Ahmed.  Essays  on  the  Life  of  Mohammed  and  Subjects  Subsidiary 
thereto  (London,  1870). 

Ameer,  All  Life  and  Teachings  of  Mohammed,  or  the  Spirit  of  Islam 
(London,  1873);  Islam  (London,  1897). 

Tassy,  Garcin  de.    LTslamisme  d'apres  le  Coran  (Paris,  1874). 

Kremer,  A.  von.  Kulturgeschichte  des  Orients  unter  den  Chalifen 
(Vienna,  1 875-1877). 

Smith,  R.  B.    Mohammed  and  Mohammedanism  (New  York,  1875). 

Goldziher,  I.    Muhammedanische  Studien  (Halle,  18S9-1890). 

Muir,  Sir  William.  Mahomet  and  Islam  (London,  Religious  Tract 
Society;   New  York,  ca.  1894). 

Castries,  Le  Comte  Henry  de.    LTslam  (Paris,  1S96). 

Wellhausen,  J.    Reste  arabischen  Heidentumes  (Berlin,  1S97). 

Smith,  H.  P.    The  Bible  and  Islam  (New  York,  1897). 

Klein,  F.  A.    The  Religion  of  Islam  (London,  1906). 

Leonard,  A.  G.    Islam,  her  Moral  and  Spiritual  Value  (London,  1909). 

Macdonald,  D.  B.  Religious  Attitude  and  Life  in  Islam  (Chicago,  1909); 
Aspects  of  Islam  (New  York,  191 1). 

Margoliouth,  D.  S.  Article  rr  Mahomet  "  (in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica, 
nth  ed.). 

Thatcher,  G.  W.    Article  "  Mahommedan  Religion,"  ibid. 

Noldeke,  Th.  Article  "  Arabs  (Ancient)  "  in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion 
and  Ethics. 

Rees,  J.  D.  The  Muhammadans  (in  Epochs  of  Indian  History)  (London 
and  New  York,  1894). 

Lane,  E.  W.  Notes  to  his  Thousand  and  One  Nights  (ed.  E.  S.  Poole, 
London,  1883). 

Hartmann,  M.  Article  "Islam  in  China"  (announced  to  appear  in  En- 
cyclopaedia of  Islam). 


604       JXTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Meyer,  Edouard.  Der  Ursprung  des  Islams  und  die  ersten  Offenbarungen 
Mohammeds  (excursus  in  his  Ursprung  und  Geschichte  der  Mormonen, 
p.  62  ff.)  (Halle  a.  S.,  1912). 

Toy,  C.  II.  Mohammed  and  the  Islam  of  the  Koran,  Harvard  Theologi- 
cal Revieiv  (Cambridge,  Mass.,  1912). 

Garnett,  Lucy  M.  J.    Mysticism  and  Magic  in  Turkey  (London,  19 12). 

Baby  Ionian- Assyrian 

Jensen,  P.    Die  Kosmologie  der  Babylonier  (Strassburg,  1890). 

Tiele,    C.    P.     Babylonisch-assyrische    Geschichte    (Gotha,    1S86);     Die 

Religion  in  Babylonien  und  Assyrien  (in  his  Geschichte  der  Religion  im 

Alterthum)  (new  ed.,  Gotha,  1 896-1903). 
Jeremias,  Friedr.   Die  Babylonier  und  Assyrier  (in  Saussaye's  Lehrbuch 

der  Religionsgeschichte)  (2d  ed.,  Freiburg,  1897). 
King,  L.  W.    Babylonian  Religion  and  Mythology  (London,  1899). 
Jeremias,  Alfred.  Die  babylonisch-assyrischen  Vorstellungen  vom  Leben 

nach  dem  Tode  (Leipzig,  1897);  Das  Alte  Testament  im  Lichte  des  alten 

Orients  (2d  ed.,  Leipzig,  1906;  Eng.  tr.,  London  and  New  York,  191 1). 
Jastrow,   M.,   Jr.     Religion    of    Babylonia    and    Assyria    (Boston,    1898 ; 

Germ,  ed.,  Giessen,  1904-         );   Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria  (in 

Hastings's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  vol.  v)   (Edinburgh  and  New  York, 

1904);  Aspects  of  Religious  Belief  and  Practice  in  Babylonia  and  Assyria 

(New  York  and  London,  191 1). 
Harper,  R.  F.    Assyrian  and  Babylonian  Literature  (New  York,  1901). 
Delitzsch,  Friedr.   Babel  und  Bibel  (Leipzig,  1902;  and  Stuttgart,' 1903; 

new  ed.,  Stuttgart,  1905);  Eng.  tr.,  ed.  C.  H.  W.  Johns  (London,  1903); 

Eng.  tr.  by  McCormack  and  Carruth  [with  German  criticisms  and  the 

author's  replies]  (Chicago,  1903). 
Rogers,  R.  W.    Religion  of  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  especially  in  its  Re- 
lations to  Israel  (New  York,  1908). 
Dhorme,  P.    La  religion  assyro-babylonienne  (Paris,  1910). 
Zimmern,  H.    Article  "  Babylonians  and  Assyrians  "  (in  Encyclopaedia  of 

Religion  and  Ethics). 
Langdon,  S.  H.    Sumerian  and  Babylonian  Psalms  (New  York  and  Paris, 

1909);  Babylonian  Eschatology  (in  Essays  offered  to  C.  A.  Briggs,  New 

York,  191 1). 
Toy,  C.  H.    Panbabylonianism,  Harvard  Theological  Revieiv  (Cambridge, 

Mass.,  1910). 
Articles  on  Marduk,  Nebo,  Oannes,  etc.,  in  Roscher's  Lexikon. 

Mandean  ' 

Noldeke,  Th.    Mandiiische  Grammatik,  Einleitung  (Halle,  1875). 
Brandt,  A.  J.  H.  W.    Die  mandiiische  Religion  (Leipzig,  1889). 
Kessler,  K.    Article  "  Mandaer  "  (in  Herzog-Hauck's  Real-Encyklopadie). 
Gottheil,  R.  J.  H.    Article  "  Mandaeans  "  (in  Johnson's  Universal  Cyclo- 
paedia). 


SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     605 

Yezidi 
Ibn,  Hallikan.   Wafayat  al-Ayan  (Biographical  Dictionary)  (ed.  F.  Wus- 

tenfeld,  Gottingen,  1835-1840);  Eng.  tr.  by  MacGuckin  de  Slane  (Paris 

and  London,  1842-187 1). 
Layard,  Sir  A.  H.    Nineveh  and  its  Remains  (2d  ed.,  London,  1849;  new 

ed.,  New  York,  1853) ;   Discoveries  among  the  Ruins  of  Nineveh  and 

Babylon  (London,  1853). 
Badger,  G.  P.    Nestorians  and  their  Rituals  (London,  1852). 
Siouffi,  N.    In  Journal  asiatique  (Paris,  1882  and  1885). 
Men  ant,  J.    Les  Yezidiz,  A /males  du  Mush  Guitnet  (Paris,  1892). 
Parry,  O.  H.    Six  Months  in  a  Syrian  Monastery  (London,  1895). 
Huart,  Clement.    History  of  Arabic  Literature,  p.  272  f.  (London  and 

New  York,   1903). 
Jackson,  A.  V.  W.    In  Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  vol.  xxv, 

p.   178  ff.  (1904);    Sketch  in  his  Persia,  Past  and  Present  (New  York, 

1906). 
Article  "  Yesidis"  in  New  International  Encyclopaedia  (New  York,  1905). 
Lidzbarski,    M.    In   Zeitschrift   der   deutschen    morgenlandischen    Gesell- 

schaft,  vol.  li  (Leipzig). 
Joseph,  Isya.    Yezidi  Texts  (reprinted  from  American  Journal  of  Semitic 

Languages  and  Literatures)  (Chicago,  1909). 

Ifebrew,  Edomite,  Phoenician^  Aramean,  etc. 

Kuenen,  A.    Religion  of  Israel  to  the  Fall  of  the  Jewish  State  (Leipzig, 

1873-1874;    Eng.  tr.,  London,    1874);    The   Prophets  and   Prophecy  in 

Israel  (Eng.  tr.,  London,  1877). 
Schultz,  H.    Old  Testament  Theology  (Eng.  tr.  of  4th  Germ,  ed.,  Edin- 
burgh, 1892). 
Schwally,  F.    Das  Leben  nach  dem  Tode  nach  den  Vorstellungen  des 

alten  Israel  und  Judentums  (Giessen,  1892). 
Montefiore,  C.  G.    Religion  of  the  Ancient  Hebrews  (London,  1892). 
Dillon,  E.  J.    The  Sceptics  of  the  Old  Testament  (London,  1895). 
Gunkel,  H.     Schopfung  und  Chaos  in  Urzeit  und  Endzeit  (Gottingen, 

1895). 
Marti,  K.   Geschichte  der  israelitischen  Religion  (3d  ed.,  Strassburg,  1897) ; 

Religion  des  Alten  Testaments  (Tubingen,  1906  ;  Eng.  tr.,  London,  1907). 
Cheyne,  T.  K.    Jewish  Religious  Life  after  the  Exile  (New  York  and 

London,   1898). 
Budde,  K.    Religion  of  Israel  to  the  Exile  (New  York  and  London,  1899). 
Smend,  R.    Alttestamentliche  Religionsgeschichte  (Leipzig,  1899). 
Kautzsch,  E.    Religion  of  Israel  (in  Hastings's  Dictionary  of  the  Bible, 

vol.  v)  (Edinburgh  and  New  York,  1904). 
Kent,  C.  F.    History  of  the  Hebrew  People  (New  York,  1896-1899). 
Mann,  Newton.    The  Evolution  of  a  Great  Literature  (2d  ed.,  Boston, 

1906). 


6o6      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS' 

Addis,  W.  E.    Hebrew  Religion  to  the  Establishment  of  Judaism  under 

Ezra  (London  and  New  York,  1906). 
Wellhausen,  J.    Israelitisch-jiidische  Religion  (in  Kultur  der  Gegenwart) 

(Berlin  and  Leipzig,  1909). 
Loisy,  A.    La  religion  d'Israe'l  (2d  ed.,  revised  and  enlarged,  Ceffonds, 

chez  l'auteur,  190S) ;  Eng.  tr.,  The  Religion  of  Israel  (London  and  New 

York,  (190). 
Wallis,  Louis.    The  Sociological  Study  of  the  Bible  (Chicago,  191 2). 
Mitchell,  H.  G.    Ethics  of  the  Old  Testament  (Chicago,  1912). 
Bexziger,  I.    Hebraische  Archaologie  (2d  ed.,  Tubingen,  1907). 
Nowack,  W.    Lehrbuch  der  hebraischen  Archaologie  (Leipzig,  1894).  . 
Wace,  W.    The  Apocrypha  (Eng.  tr.,  in  Speaker's  Commentary)  (London, 


Schurer,  E.  Geschichte  des  judischen  Volkes  im  Zeitalter  Jesu  Christi 
(3d  and  4th  edd.,  Leipzig,  1898-1907) ;  Eng.  tr.  of  2d.  ed.,  History  of  the 
Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of  Jesus  Christ  (New  York,  1891). 

Buchler,  A.  Die  Priester  und  der  Cultus  im  letzten  Jahrzehnt  des  jeru- 
salemischen  Tempels  (Vienna,  1895). 

Bousset,  W.  Die  Religion  des  Judentums  im  neutestamentlichen  Zeitalter 
(Berlin,  1903). 

Riggs,  J.  S.  History  of  the  Jewish  People  during  the  Maccabean  and 
Roman  Periods   (New  York,   1910). 

Hollmann,  G.  The  Jewish  Religion  in  the  Time  of  Jesus  (Eng.  tr.,  London, 
1909). 

Graetz,  H.    History  of  the  Jews  (Eng.  tr.,  Philadelphia,  1891-1895). 

Grossman,  L.  Judaism  and  the  Science  of  Religion  (New  York  and  Lon- 
don, 1889). 

Suffrin,  A.  E.  Article  "  Dualism  (Jewish)  "  (in  Hastings's  Encyclopaedia 
of  Religion  and  Ethics). 

Weber,  F.    Jiidische  Theologie  (2d.  ed.,  Leipzig,  1S97). 

Lazarus,  M.    Ethics  of  Judaism  (Eng.  tr.,  Philadelphia,  1900-         ). 

Philipson,  D.  The  Reform  Movement  in  Judaism  (New  York  and  London, 
1907). 

Oesterley,  W.  O.  E.,  and  Box,  G.  H.  Religion  and  Worship  of  the  Syna- 
gogue (Newr  York,  1907). 

Bliss,  F.  J.  The  Religions  of  Modern  Syria  and  Palestine  (New  York, 
1912). 

Joseph,  M.    Judaism  as  Creed  and  Life  (London  and  New  York,  1910). 

Philo  of  Byblos.  Greek  tr.  of  Sanchuniathon  (text,  Greek  and  Latin,  in 
K.  Midler's  Fragmenta  Historicorum  Graecorum)  (Paris,  184S). 

Cory,  I.  P.  Ancient  Fragments  of  the  Phoenician  .  .  .  and  Other  Writers 
(London,  1876). 

Gutschmid,  A.  von.    Kleine  Schriften  (Leipzig,  1890). 

Rawlinson,  G.    History  of  Phoenicia  (London,  1889). 

Pietschmann,  R.    Geschichte  der  Phoenizier  (Berlin,  1889). 


SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     607 

Baudissin,  \V.  von.    Adonis  und  Esmun  (Berlin,  191 1). 

Muller,  W.  Max.  Remarks  on  the  Carthaginian  Deity,  Journal  of  the 
American  Oriental  Society,  vol.  xxxii  (December,  191 2). 

Articles  "  Edomites  "  and  "  Syrians  "  (announced)  in  Hastings's  Encyclo- 
paedia of  Religion  and  Ethics. 

Alexandre,  Charles.  Oracula  Sibyllina  (Greek  text  with  Latin  tr.) 
(Paris,  1841,  new  ed.,  1869). 

Friedlieb,  J.  H.  Oracula  Sibyllina  (Greek  text  with  German  tr.) 
(Leipzig,  1852). 

Rzach,  A.    Oracula  Sibyllina  (critical  Greek  text)  (Vienna,  1891). 

Terry,  M.  S.  The  Sibylline  Oracles  (translated  from  the  Greek)  (New 
York,  1890). 

Asia  Minor 

Pseudo-Lucian.    De  Syria  Dea. 

Meyer,  Edouard,  Geschichte  des  Altertums,  vol.  i,  part  ii  (2d  ed.,  Stutt- 
gart and  Berlin,  1909). 

Perrot  and  Chipiez.  History  of  Art  in  Sardinia  .  .  .  and  Asia  Minor 
(Eng.  tr.,  1890). 

Messerschmidt,  L.  Corpus  Inscriptionum  Hettiticarum,  Mitteilungen 
der  vorderasiatischen  Gesellsch aft  (Leipzig,  1900);  The  Ancient  Hittites, 
Smithsonian  Institution^  Annual  Reports  (1893,  T894)- 

Ramsay,  Sir  William.  Historical  Geography  of  Asia  Minor  (in  supple- 
mentary papers  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  iv)  (London,  1890); 
articles  in  fonrnal  of  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  xv. 

Winckler,  H.  In  Mitteilungen  der  dentschen  Orient-Gesellschaft  (Berlin, 
1907). 

Hogarth,  D.  G.  Article  "  Hittites  "  (in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  1  ith  ed.). 

Garstang,  J.    Land  of  the  Hittites  (London,  1910). 

Ward,  W.  H.  The  Greek  and  the  Hittite  Gods  (in  Essays  presented  to 
C.  A.  Briggs,  New  York,  191 1) ;  Asianic  Influence  in  Greek  Mythology 
(in  Studies  presented  to  C.  H.  Toy,  New  York,  1912). 

Roscher.    Lexikon,  article  "  Kybele." 

Mithraism 
Cumont,  Franz.    Textes  et  monuments  figures  relatifs  aux  mysteres  de 
Mithra  (Brussels,  1899);  Mysteres  de  Mithra  (2d  ed.,  Paris,  1902;  Eng.  tr., 
Chicago,  1903) ;  Astrology  and  Religion  among  the  Greeks  and  Romans 
(New  York  and  London,  1912)  ;  article  "  Mithras  "  in  Roscher's  Lexikon. 

Indian  (  Vedic,  Brahmanic,  Modern) 

Ward,   W.    A   View  of  the   History,   Literature  and   Mythology  of   the 

Hindoos  (London,   1822). 
Wilson,  H.  H.    Sketch  of  the  Religious  Sects  of  the  Hindus  (in  Asiatic 

Researches,  1828-1832)  (republished,  London,  1861). 


608       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Macpherson,  S.  C.  Religious  Opinions  and  Observances  of  the  Khonds, 
Journal  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society  (London,  1842  and  1852). 

Burnouf,  Emile.    Essais  sur  le  Veda  (Paris,  1863). 

Colebrooke,  H.  T.    Essays  (new  ed.,  London,  1873). 

Bergaigne,  A.    La  religion  vedique  (Paris,  1878-1S83). 

Muller,  F.  Max.    Religions  of  India  (London,  1878). 

Zimmer,  H.    Altindisches  Leben  (Berlin,  1879). 

Lefmann,  S.    Geschichte  des  alten  Indiens  (Berlin,  1880). 

Barth,  A.    Religions  of  India  (Eng.  tr.,  London,  1882). 

Deussen,  P.  Das  System  des  Vedanta  (Leipzig,  1883) ;  Eng.  tr.,  The  sys- 
tem of  the  Vedanta  (Chicago,  191 2). 

Wilkins,  W.  J.    Modem  Hinduism  (London,  1887). 

Le  Bon,  G.    Les  civilisations  de  lTnde  (Paris,  1887). 

Lanman,  C.  R.    Beginnings  of  Hindu  Pantheism  (Cambridge,  Mass.,  1S90). 

Monier-Williams,  Sir  Monier.  Hinduism  (London,  1890);  Brahmanism 
and  Hinduism  (4th  ed.,  London,  1891) ;  Indian  Wisdom  (London,  1893). 

Garbe,  R.  Die  Samkhya  Philosophie  (Cambridge,  Mass.,  and  Boston, 
1895)  ;  Beitrage  zur  indischen  Kulturgeschichte  (Berlin,  1903) ;  Akbar, 
Emperor  of  India,  The  Monist,  (Chicago,  April,  1909). 

Oldenberg,  H.    Religion  des  Veda  (Berlin,  1894). 

Macdonell,  A.  A.    Vedic  Mythology  (Strassburg,  1897). 

Hillebrandt,  A.    Vedische  Mythologie  (Breslau,  1891-1902). 

Bloomfield,  M.    Religion  of  the  Veda  (New  York  and  London,  1908). 

Hopkins,  E.  W.  Religions  of  India  (Boston,  1895)  !  The  Great  Epic  of 
India  (New  York,  1901) ;  India  Old  and  New  (New  York,  1901). 

Dubois,  J.  A.  Hindu  Manners,  Customs  and  Ceremonies  (tr.  from  the 
author's  later  French  manuscript,  by  H.  K.  Beauchamp)  (Oxford,  1S97). 

Dutt,  R.  C.    Civilization  of  India  (London,  1900). 

Eggeling,  H.  J.  Article  "  Hinduism "  (in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica, 
nth  ed.)  {London). 

Beveridge,  H.  Article  "  Akbar "  (in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics)   (Edinburgh  and  New  York). 

Grierson,  G.  A.    Article  "  Bhakti-Marga,"  ibid. 

Pridham,  C.    An  Account  of  Ceylon  [the  Veddas]  (London,  1849). 

Crooke,  W.  Popular  Religion  and  Folk-Lore  of  Northern  India  (London, 
1896) ;  article  "  Bengal  "  in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics  ;  article 
w  Dravidians  (North  India),"  ibid. 

Frazer,  R.  W.  Article  "  Dravidians  (South  India),"  ibid. 

Robertson,  Sir  G.  Scott.    The  Kafirs  of  the  Hindu  Kush  (London,  1896). 

Rivers,  W.  H.  H.    The  Todas  (London,  1906). 

Hodson,  T.  C.    The  Naga  Tribes  of  Manipur  (London,  191 1). 

Buddhism 
Burnouf,  Emile.    Introduction  a  l'histoire  du  bouddhisme  indien  (Paris, 
1844) ;  Le  lotus  de  la  bonne  loi  (tr.  of  the  Saddharma-Pundarika)  (Paris, 
1852). 


SELECTED  LIST  OE  BOOKS  OE  REFERENCE     609 

Hue,  Abbe.    Travels  in  Tartary,  Thibet  and  China  (1844-1846;  Eng.  tr., 

Chicago,  1898). 
Hardy,    R.    Spence.    Eastern   Monachism   (London,    1850) ;    Manual  of 

Buddhism  in  its  Modern  Development  (2d  ed.,  London,  i860). 
Davids,  T.  W.Rhys.  Some  Points  in  the  History  of  Indian  Buddhism  (Lon- 
don, 1SS1) ;  Buddhism  (London,  1882);  Buddhist  India  (London,  1903); 

Buddhism,  its  History  and  Literature  (2d  ed.,  New  York  and  London, 

1907). 
Oldenberg,  H.    Buddha,  his  Life,  his  Doctrine,  his  Order  (Eng.  tr.,  Lon- 
don, 1882). 
Kern,  H.    The  Lotus  of  the  True  Law  (tr.  of  the  Saddharma-Pundarika), 

vol.  xxi  of  Sacred  Books  of  the  East  (Oxford,  1884). 
Monier- Williams,  Sir  Monier.    Buddhism  (London,  1890). 
Hardy,  Edmund.    Der  Buddhismus  (Minister,  1890). 
Copleston,  R.  S.    Buddhism  Primitive  and  Present  in  Magadha  and  in 

Ceylon  (London,  1892). 
Barth,  A.    Religions  of  India  (Eng.  tr.,  London,  1882). 
Hopkins,  E.  W.    Religions  of  India  (Boston  and  London,   1895)  '■>  India 

Old  and  New  (New  York,  1901). 
Warren,  H.  C.    Buddhism  in  Translations  (Cambridge,  Mass.,  1896). 
De  la  Vallee  Poussin.     Buddhisme   et   religions   de   l'lnde   (Brussels, 

1912). 
Waddell,  L.  A.    Buddhism  in  Tibet,  or  Lamaism  (London,  1895). 
Grunwedel,  A.   Lamaismus  (in  Kultur  der  Gegenwart,  Die  orientalischen 

Religionen)  (Berlin,  1906). 
Rockhill,  W.  W.    Life  of  the  Buddha  and  the  Early  History  of  his  Order 

[from  Tibetan  works]  (London,  1907). 
Beal,  Samuel.    Buddhism  in  China  (London,  1884).    • 
De  Groot,  J.  J.  M.    On  Mahayana  (in  his  Religion  of  the  Chinese)  (New 

York,  1910). 
Hackmann,    H.     Der   Buddhismus  (Halle   a.   S.,    1905-1906);    Eng.   tr., 

Buddhism  as  a  Religion  (London,  1909). 
Oltramare,  P.    Histoire  des  idees  theosophiques  dans  l'lnde,  Annates  dn 

Mush  Gni»iet,  v  (Paris,  1906). 
Cowell,  Muller  and  Takakusu.  Tr.  of  Buddhist  Mahayana  sutras  (in- 
cluding the  Buddha- Karita  of  Asvaghosha),  vol.  xlix  of  Sacred  Books  of 

the  East  (Oxford,  1894). 
Articles   (announced)   on    Hinayana   and   Mahayana   in    Encyclopaedia  of 

Religion  and  Ethics. 
SUZUKI,  T.    Eng.  tr.  of  Asvaghosha's  Discourse  on  the  Awakening  of  Faith 

(Chicago,  1900)  ;  Outlines  of  Mahayana  Buddhism  (London,  1907). 
Aung,    S.    Z.,   and    Mrs.    Rhys    Davids.     Compendium    of    Philosophy 

(London,   1910). 
Haas,  H.    Article  "Amida  Buddha  unsere  Zuflucht,"  Religions-Urkniiden 

der  V'dlker  (Leipzig,  19 10). 


6lO      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Richard,  T.   The  New  Testament  of  Higher  Buddhism  (Edinburgh,  1910) ; 

Eng.  tr.  of  Asvaghosha's  Discourse  on  the  Awakening  of  Faith  (Shanghai, 

1907). 
Anesaki,  M.   Article  "  Docetism  (Buddhist)  "  (in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion 

and  Ethics). 
Lloyd,  A.    The  Creed  of  Half  Japan,  Sketches  of  Japanese  Buddhism 

(New  York,   191 2). 
Aiken,  C.  F.    The  Dhamma  of  Gotama  the  Buddha  and  the  Gospel  of 

Jesus  the  Christ  (Boston,  1900)  (with  bibliography). 
Edmunds,  A.  J.    Buddhist  and  Christian  Gospels  (4th  ed.,  Philadelphia, 

1 908- 1 909). 

Jainistn 

Jacobi,  H.  Gaina-sutras,  vol.  xxii  of  Sacred  Books  of  the  East  (Oxford, 

1884). 
Hopkins,  E.  W.    Religions  of  India  (Boston  and  London,  1895),  and  the 

bibliography  there  given. 

Sikhs 
Trumpp,  Ernst.    Religion  der  Sikhs  (Leipzig,   18S1);    The  Adi  Granth 

(Eng.  tr.,  London,   1907). 
Hopkins,  E.  W.    Religions  of  India,  pp.  510  ff.,  591  (Boston,  1895). 
Macauliffe,  M.  A.    The  Sikh  Religion  (Oxford,  1909). 
Bloomfield,  M.    The  Sikh  Religion  (in  Studies  in  the  History  of  Religions 

presented  to  C.  H.  Toy)  (New  York,  191 2). 

Gypsies 
Wlislocki,    H.  von.    Volksglaube  und  religioser  Brauch  der  Zigeuner 

(Miinster,  Westphalia,  1891). 
Burton,  Sir  R.  F.    The  Jew,  the  Gypsy,  and  El  Islam  (Chicago  and  New 

York,  1898). 
Gaster,  Moses.    Article  "  Gipsies  "  (with  bibliography)  (in  Encyclopaedia 

Britannica,  nth  ed.). 
Article  "  Gypsies  "  in  New  International  Encyclopaedia. 
Ethtwlogische  Jllitteilungeu  (Berlin,  1892). 

Malay  Peninsula  and  Assam 

Skeat,  W.  W.    Malay  Magic  (London,  1900). 

Skeat,  W.  W.,  and  Blagden,  C.  O.  Pagan  Races  of  the  Malay  Peninsula 
(London,  1906). 

Hodson,  T.  C.  Genna  amongst  the  Tribes  of  Assam,  Journal  of  the  An- 
thropological Institute,  (London,  1905). 

Gait,  E.  A.    History  of  Assam  (Calcutta,  1906). 

Anderson,  J.  D.  Article  "  Assam "  (in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics). 


SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     6ll 

Indo- Chinese  Peninsula 
Cabaton,  A.  Article  "  Annam  "  (in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics). 

Persian 

Windischmann,  F.    Zoroastrische  Studien  (Berlin,  1863). 

Spiegel,  Fr.    Eranische  Alterthumskunde  (Leipzig,  1871-1S7S). 

Harlez,  C.  de.  Introduction  to  his  French  Translation  of  the  Avesta (Paris, 
1S81). 

Haug,  M.    Essays  on  the  Parsis  (3d  ed.,  London,  1884). 

Justi,  F.    Geschichte  des  alten  Persiens,  p.  67  ff.  (Berlin,  1879). 

Geiger,  W.  Civilization  of  the  Eastern  Iranians  in  Ancient  Times  (Eng. 
tr.,  London,  188 5-1886). 

Darmesteter,  J.    Le  Zend-Avesta  (Paris,  1892-1893). 

Jackson,  A.  V.  Williams,  Die  iranische  Religion  (in  Geiger  and  Kuhn's 
Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie)  (Strassburg,  1 896-1904)  ;  Zoroaster 
(New  York  and  London,  1899);  Persia,  Past  and  Present  (New  York, 
1906) ;  article  "Avesta"  (in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics);  Reli- 
gion of  the  Achaemenian  Kings  (according  to  the  inscriptions),  Journal  of 
the  American  Oriental  Society,  xxi  (New  Haven,  1901). 

Browne,  E.  G.    Literary  History  of  Persia,  p.  95  ff.  (London,  1902). 

Geldner,  K.  F.  Avestalitteratur,  Grundriss  der  iranischen  Philologie,  ii ; 
Eng.  tr.,  in  Studies  in  honor  of  Sanjana  (Strassburg,  1904). 

Sanjana.  Zarathushtra  and  Zarathushtrianism  in  the  Avesta  (Leipzig, 
1906). 

Menant,  D.  Zoroaster  d'apres  la  tradition  parsie,  Auuales  du  Musee  Guituet, 
vol.  xxx  (Paris). 

Mills,  L.  H.  Zarathushtra  (Zoroaster),  Philo,  the  Achaemenids  and  Israel 
(Chicago,  1906);  articles  (on  Asha  and  Vohumanah)  in  Journal  of  the 
American  Oriental  Society,  xx,  xxi  (New  Haven,  1 899-1 901). 

Gray,  L.  H.    In  Archiv  fur  Religionswissenschaft,  vii,  345  (Leipzig,  1904). 

Casartelli,  L.  C.  Philosophy  of  the  Mazdayasnian  Religion  under  the 
Sassanids  (Eng.  tr.,  Bombay,  1S89) ;  article  "Dualism,  Iranian"  (in 
Hastings's  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics). 

Moore,  G.  F.  Zoroastrianism,  Harvard  Theological  Review,  vol.  v.  (Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  1912). 

Darmesteter  and  Mills.  Eng.  tr.  of  the  Avesta  (in  Sacred  Books  of  the 
East)  (Oxford,  1879-         )• 

Cumont,  Fr.    Article  "  Mithras  "  (in  Roscher's  Lexikon). 

Manic  hceism 

Beausobre,  Isaac  de.  Histoire  critique  de  Manichee  et  du  manicheisme 
(Paris,  I734-I735)- 

Flugel,  G.  Mani,  seine  Lehre  und  seine  Schriften  (from  the  Fihrist)  (Leip- 
zig, 1862). 


6l2       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Kessler,  K.  Mani  (Berlin,  1SS9  and  1903);  article  "  Mani  und  die  Mani- 
chaer"  (in  Herzog-Hauck's  Real-Encyklopadie)  (Leipzig,  1903). 

Kugener  and  Cumont.  Recherches  sur  le  manicheisme  (Brussels, 
1 90S  ff.). 

Druses 
Sacy,  Silvestre  de.    Expose  de  la  religion  des  Druses  (Paris,  1S3S). 
Churchill,  C.   H.    Ten  Years'  Residence  in  Mount  Lebanon  (London, 

1853)- 

Wortabet,  J.    Researches  into  the  Religions  of  Syria  (London,  i860). 
Guys,  H.    La  theogonie  des  Druses  (Paris,  1863). 
Herzog-Hauck.    Real-Encyklopadie,  Index,  s.v.  Drusen. 
Hogarth,  D.  G.,  and  Bell,  Gertrude  L.   Article  "  Druses  "  (in  Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica,  nth  ed.). 

Babism  and  Bahaism 

Comte  de  Gobineau.  Les  religions  et  les  philosophies  dans  l'Asie  Cen- 
trale  (Paris,  1S66). 

Browne,  E.  G.  The  Episode  of  the  Bab:  a  Traveller's  Narrative,  vol.  i 
Persian  text,  vol.  ii  Eng.  tr.  (Cambridge,  England,  1891);  New  History  of 
the  Bab  (Eng.  tr.,  Cambridge,  England,  1893). 

Phelps,  M.  H.  Life  and  Teaching  of  Abbas  Effendi  [son  of  the  founder, 
Behau'llah]  — Religion  of  the  Babis  and  Behais  (New  York,  1903). 

Burney,  Laura  C.  Some  Answered  Questions  [statement  of  Bahaist  be- 
liefs by  Abbas  Efendi]  (London,  1908). 

Armenian 
Sayce,  A.  H.    Article  "  Armenia  (Vannic)  "  (in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion 

and  Ethics). 
Ananikian,  M.  H.    Article  "Armenia  (Zoroastrian),"  ibid. 

sEgean 
Perrot  and  Chipiez.   La  Grece  primitive  (in  their  Histoire  de  l'art)  (Paris, 

1895). 
Evans,  A.  J.   Mycenaean  Tree  and  Pillar  Cult  (London   and   New  York, 

1901);   Scripta  Minoa  [written   documents  of    Minoan    Crete]   (Oxford, 

1909-         ). 
Articles  in  Journal  of  Hellenic  Studies  and  Annals  of  the  British  School  at 

Athens. 
Hogarth,  D.  G.   Article  "  ^igean  Religion  "  (in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion 

and  Ethics). 

Greek 
Augustine.    De  Civitate  Dei. 

Welcker,  F.  G.    Griechische  Gotterlehre  (Gottingen,  1857-1863). 
Hermann,  K.  F.  Lehrbuch  der  gottesdienstlichen  Alterthiimer der Griechen 

(Heidelberg,  1858). 


SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     613 

Gladstone,   W.  E.    Juventus  Mundi,  the  Gods  and  Men  of  the    Heroic 

Age  (London,  1869). 
Boetticher,  C.    Baumkultus  der  Hellenen  und  Romer  (Berlin,  1856). 
Gruppe,  O.    Die  griechischen  Culte   und   Mythen  (Leipzig,   1887);  Grie- 

chische  Mythologie  (Miinchen,  1897-1906). 
Stengel  and  Oehmichen.   Die  griechischen  Sakralaltertiimer  (Miinchen, 

1S90). 
Dyer,  Louis.    Studies  of  the  Gods  in  Greece  (London,  1891). 
Caird,  E.    Evolution    of    Religion,   lecture  v   (London    and   New   York, 

1893). 

Gardner  and  Jevons.    Greek  Antiquities  (London,  1895). 

Mommsen,  A.    Feste  der  Stadt  Athen  (new  ed.,  Leipzig,  1898). 

Dickinson,  G.  Lowes.    The  Greek  View  of  Life  (2d  ed.,  London,  1898). 

Farnell,  L.  R.  Cults  of  the  Greek  States  (Oxford,  1896-1909);  The  Place 
of  the  '  Sondergotter '  in  Greek  Polytheism  (in  Anthropological  Essays 
presented  to  E.  B.  Tylor)  (Oxford,  1907);  Greece  and  Babylon  (Edin- 
burgh, 191 1);   Higher  Aspects  of  Greek  Religion  (London,  1912). 

Rohde,  E.    Psyche,  1894  (3d  issue,  Leipzig,  1903). 

Harrison,  Miss  J.  E.  Prolegomena  to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion  (Cam- 
bridge, Eng.,  1903);  Themis,  a  Study  of  the  Social  Origins  of  Greek  Re- 
ligion (Cambridge,  England,  191 2). 

Hatch,  E.  Influence  of  Greek  Ideas  and  Usages  upon  the  Christian 
Church  (London,  1904). 

Seymour,  T.  D.    Life  in  the  Homeric  Age  (New  York  and  London,  1907). 

Adam,  James.    The  Religious  Teachers  of  Greece  (Edinburgh,  190S). 

Pfister,  F.    Reliquien-Cult  im  Altertum  (Giessen,  1909). 

Foucart,  P.  Des  associations  religieuses  chez  les  Grecs  (Paris,  1873); 
Les  grands  mysteres  d'Eleusis  (Paris,  1900). 

Jevons,  F.B.  Introduction  to  the  History  of  Religion  (2ded.,  London,  1902), 
chap,  xxiii  f. 

Jong,  K.  H.  E.  de.    Das  antike  Mysterienwesen  (Leiden,  1909). 

Fairbanks,  A.    Handbook  of  Greek  Religion  (New  York,  1910). 

Reizenstein,  R.  Hellenistische  Mysterienreligion  (Leipzig  and  Berlin, 
1910). 

Article  "  Dionysos  "  in  Roscher's  Lexikon. 

Articles  "  Mystery  "  and  "  Orpheus  "  in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica  1  ith  ed. 

Article  "  Mystery  "  in  New  International  Encyclopaedia. 

Bevan,  E.  R.  Article  "  Deification  (Greek  and  Roman)  "  (in  Encyclo- 
paedia of  Religion  and  Ethics)  (Edinburgh  and  New  York,  191 2). 

Lehmann-Haupt,  C.  F.    Article  "  Sarapis  "  (in  Roscher's  Lexikon). 

Mahaffy,  J.  P.  History  of  Egypt  under  the  Ptolemaic  Dynasty,  p.  56  ff. 
(London,  1889). 

Steindorff,  G.  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians,  p.  72  f.  (New  York 
and  London,  1905). 

Plutarch.    Isis  and  Osiris. 


6l4      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Preuschen,  E.    Monchtum  und  Sarapiskult  (Giessen,  1903). 
Apuleius.    Cult  of  Isis  (in  his  Metamorphoses,  bk.  xi). 
Drexler,  W.    Article  "Isis"  (in  Roscher's  Lexikon). 

Religions  Relations  betweeti  Greece  and  India 
Schroder,  L.  von.    Pythagoras  und  die  Inder  (Leipzig,  1884). 
Weber,  A.    Die  Griechen  in  Indien,  Literarisches  Centralblatt  (1884). 
Garbe,    R.     Connexion    between    Indian    and    Greek    Philosophy,     The 

Monist  (July,   1894). 
Hopkins,   E.   W.     Religions   of  India,   chap,   xix   (Boston  and   London, 

lS95)-  am     n  . 

Pringle-Pattison,  A.  S.    Article  "Pythagoras"  (in  Encyclopaedia  Bn- 

tannica,   nth  ed.). 
Histories  of  Philosophy,  on  Pythagoras. 

Roman 
Varro,    M.    T.      Res    Rusticae    (Leipzig,    1889) ;     Res    Divinae    (from 

Augustine's    De    Civitate    Dei)    (Leipzig,    1896);     De    Lingua    Latina 

(Leipzig,   1910). 
Arnobius.     Disputationes   adversus    Gentes    (or    Nationes)    (Latin    text, 

Vienna,  1875;  Eng.  tr.,  New  York,  188S). 
Servius.    Commentary  on  Vergil  (Leipzig,  1881-1SS7). 
Macrobius.    Saturnalia  (Fr.  tr.,  Paris,  1883). 
Augustine.    De  Civitate  Dei. 
Mommsen,  Th.    Romische  Geschichte  (new  ed.,  Berlin,  1856-1887;  Eng. 

tr.,  London  and  New  York,  1870,  1894,  1903). 
Zeller,  E.    Religion  und  Philosophic  bei  den  Romern  (in  his  Beitrage  und 

Abhandlungen)  (Berlin,  1S72). 
Boissier  G.    La  religion  romaine  d'Auguste  aux  Antonins  (2d  ed.,  Paris, 

1878). 
Renan,  E.    Influence  of  the  Institutions,  Thought  and  Culture  of  Rome 

on  Christianity  (London,  1SS0). 
Preller-Jordan.    Romische  Mythologie  (Berlin,  1S81-1883). 
Aust,  E.    Religion  der  Romer  (Miinster,  Westphalia,  1899). 
Wissowa,  G.    Religion  und  Kultus  der  Romer  (Munich,  1902). 
Fowler,  W.  W.   Roman  Festivals  of  the  Period  of  the  Republic  (London, 

1899);    Social  Life  at  Rome  in  the  Age  of  Cicero  (New  York,   1910) ; 

Religious  Experience  of  the  Roman  People  (London,  191 1). 
Friedlander,  L.    Sittengeschichte  Roms  (8th  ed.,  Leipzig,  1910)  ;  Eng. 

tr.  of  7th  ed.,  Roman  Life  and  Manners  under  the  Early  Empire  (London 

and  New  York  [19-     ]). 
Glover,  T.  R.    Conflict  of  Religions  in  the  Early  Roman  Empire  (2d  ed., 

London,  1909). 
Gruppe,  G.  Kulturgeschichte  der  romischen  Kaiserzeit  (Miinchen,  1903- 

1904). 


SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     615 

Carter,  J.  B.    Religion  of  Numa  (London,  1906);  The  Religious  Life  of 

Ancient  Rome  (Boston  and  New  York,  191 1). 
Reinach,  S.    Orpheus  [a  general  history  of  religions],  chap,  iii  (Paris,  1909  ; 

Eng.  tr.,  revised  by  the  author,  London  and  New  York,  1909). 
Arnold,  E.  V.    Roman  Stoicism  (Cambridge,  England,  191 1). 

Etruscan 
Herbig,  G.    Article  "  Etruscan  Religion  "  (in  Hastings's  Encyclopaedia  of 
Religion  and  Ethics). 

Celtic 
Rhys,  J.    Celtic  Heathendom  (London,  1886). 
Bertranu,  A.    Religion  des  Gaulois  (2d  ed.,  Paris,  1891). 
Ihm,  M.    Der  Mutter- oder  Matronenkultus  und  seine  Denkmaler,  Bonner 

Jahrbilcher  (1887). 
MacCulloch  J.  A.    Religion  of  the   Ancient  Celts   (Edinburgh,   191 1); 

article   "  Celts "    (in    Encyclopaedia    of    Religion    and    Ethics) ;    article 

"  Druids,"  ibid. 
Gruffydd,  \V.  J.    Welsh  Literature  (in  article  "  Celt  "  in  Encyclopaedia 

Britannica,   nth  ed.). 
Quiggin,  E.  C.    Article  "  Celtic  Languages  and  Literature,"  ibid. 
Robinson,  F.  N.    Article  "  Deae  Matres  "  (in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion 

and  Ethics). 
Revue  Celtique  (Paris). 
Celtic  Bez'ieza,  Edinburgh. 

Teutonic 
Grimm,    J.    Deutsche   Mythologie   (Berlin,    1835;    4th    ed.,     1875-1878) ; 

Kleinere  Schriften  (Berlin,  1864-1890). 
Mullenhoff,  K.    Deutsche  Altertumskunde  (Berlin,  1870-1892). 
Bugge,   S.    Studier  over   de  nordiske    Gude-    og    Heltesagns   oprindelse 

(1880) ;  Germ,  tr.,  Studien  iiber  die  Entstehung  der  nordischen  Gotter- 

und  Heldensagen  (Munich,  1889). 
Gruppe,  O.    Griechische  Culte  und  Mythen  in  ihren  Beziehungen  zu  den 

orientalischen  Religionen,  Index  (Leipzig,  18S7). 
Mogk,    E.    Germanische    Mythologie  (in   Paul's   Grundriss   der  germani- 

schen  Philologie)  (2d  ed.,  Strassburg,  1898). 
Meyer,  E.  H.    Germanische  Mythologie  (Berlin,  1891). 
Gummere,  F.  B.  Article  "Teutonic(or  Germanic)  Mythology"  (in  Johnson's 

Universal  Cyclopaedia);  Germanic  Origins  (New  York,  1892). 
La  Saussaye,  P.  D.  Chantepie  de.    Religion  of  the  Teutons  (with  bibli- 
ography) (Boston  and  London,  1902). 
Chadwick,  H.  M.    Article  "  Teutonic  Peoples,"  p.  6S3  ff .  (in  Encyclopaedia 

Britannica,  nth  ed.). 
Mannhardt,  W.    Baumcultus  der  Germanen  und  ihrer  Nachbarstamme 

(Berlin,    1875);    Antike    Wald-    und    Feldkulte    aus    nordeuropaischen 


6l6      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Uberlieferungen  erlautert  (Berlin,  1877);  Mythologische  Forschungen, 
Quellen  und  Forschungen  (1884). 

Jonsson,  F.  Article  "  The  Eddas  "  (in  Hastings's  Encyclopaedia  of  Re- 
ligion and  Ethics). 

Vigfusson,  G.,  and  Powell,  F.  York.  Corpus  Poeticum  Boreale  (Old 
Norse  Poetry,  Scaldic  and  Eddie)  (Oxford,  1883). 

Thorpe,  B.    Metrical  Translation  of  the  Edda  (London,  1866). 

Slavic 

Archiv  fur  slavische  Philologie  (Berlin,  1876-         ). 
•Manns,  E.  H.  Article  "Slavs,"  p. 230  (in  Encyclopaedia Britannica,  nth.ed.). 
Usener,  H.    Gotternamen  (Bonn,  1896). 
Krauss,  F.  S.    Slavische  Folkforschungen  (Leipzig,  1908). 
Mone,  F.  J.    Geschichte  des  Heidenthums  in  nordlichen  Europa  (Leipzig, 
1836). 

Central  and  Northern  Asia 

Ratzel,  F.    History  of  Mankind  (Eng.  tr.,  London,  1896-189S). 

Featherman,  A.    Races  of  Mankind,  iv  (London,  1S81-1891). 

Pumpelly,  R.  Explorations  in  Turkestan  (Prehistoric  Civilizations  of  Anau) 
(Washington,  1908). 

Vambery,  A.  Die  primitive  Cultur  des  turko-tatarischen  Volkes  (Leip- 
zig, 1879). 

Hue,   E.   R.     Travels  in   Tartary,   Tibet,  and   China   (Eng.  tr.,   London, 

i859)- 
Keane,  A.  H.  Asia  (London,  1896-1906);  article  "  Asia"  (in  Encyclopaedia 

of  Religion  and  Ethics). 
King,  L.  W.    History  of  Sumer  and  Akkad,  Appendix  (New  York,  1910). 
Mouhot,  H.    Travels  in  the  Central  Parts  of  Indo-China  (London,  1864). 
Cross,  E.  B.    The  Karens,  Journal  of  the  American   Oriental  Society,  iv 

(New  York,  1S54). 
Klementz,  Demetrius.    Article  "Buriats"  (in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion 

and  Ethics). 
Wasiljev,  J.    Heidnische  Gebrauche,  Aberglaube  und  Religion  der  Wot- 

yaken  (Helsingfors,  1902). 
Jochelson,  W.   The  Koryak  (in  Jesup  North  Pacific  Expedition,  vi)  (New 

York). 
Bogoras,  W.    The  Chukchee,  ibid. 
Wright,  J.  H.,  editor.    History  of  All  Nations,  vol.  ii,  Central  and  Eastern 

Asia   in   Antiquity  (by  F.   Justi,  F.   W.  Williams,  M.   Jastrow,   Jr.,  and 

A.  V.  W.  Jackson)  (Philadelphia  and  New  York,  1902  and  1905). 
Wlislocki,   H.  von.    Volksglaube  und  religioser  Brauch   der   Magyaren 

(Miinster,  Westphalia,  1893). 
Castren,  M.  A.    Finnische  Mythologie  (Germ,  tr.,  St.  Petersburg,  1853). 


SELECTED.  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     617 

Acta  Societatis  Scientiarum  Fennicae  (Helsingfors). 

Comparetti,  D.    11  Kalevala,  o  la  poesia  tradizionale  dei  Finni  (Rome, 

1891). 
Crawford,  J.  M.    Eng.  tr.  of  the  Kalevala  (New  York,  1888). 
KlRBY,  W.  F.    Eng.  tr.  of  the  Kalevala  (London,  1898). 

Japan 

Griffis,  W.  E.    The  Religions  of  Japan  (London,  1895). 

Aston,  W.  G.    Shinto  (London,  1907). 

KNOX,  G.  W.   Development  of  Religion  in  Japan  (New  York  and  London, 

1907). 
Longford,  J.  H.    Story  of  Old  Japan  (London,  1910). 
Brinkley,  F.    In  article  "Japan"  (in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  nth  ed., 

p.  222  ff.)- 
BATCHELOR,   J.     The   Ainu   and   their   Folklore    (London,    1901);    article 

"  . Vinus  "  (in   Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics). 
Howard,  B.  D.    Life  with  the  Trans-Siberian  Savages  (London,  1893). 

China  and  Korea 

Douglas,  R.  K.    Confucianism  and  Taouism  (London,  18S9). 

Legge,  James.  Religions  of  China  (London,  1880);  articles  "Confucius" 
and"  Lao-Tsze  "  (in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  1  ith  ed.);  Texts  of  Taoism 
(in  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  vol.  xl). 

De  Groot,  J.  J.  M.  Religious  System  of  China  (Leiden,  1 892-1907) ;  Re- 
ligion of  the  Chinese  (New  York,  1910) ;  Religion  in  China:  Universism, 
a  Key  to  the  Study  of  Taoism  and  Confucianism  (New  York  and  London, 
1912). 

Giles,  H.  A.  Articles  "Religions  of  Ancient  China,"  "China"  (in 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica,    nth  ed.). 

Griffis,  W.  E.    Corea,  the  Hermit  Nation  (New  York,  1901). 

Longford,  J.  H.    Story  of  Korea  (New  York,  191 1). 

Howarth,  O.  J.  R.  Article  "  Korea  "  (in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  1  ith  ed.). 

Underwood,  H.  G.    Religions  of  Eastern  Asia  (New  York,  1910). 

Parker,  E.  H.    Studies  in  Chinese  Religion  (London,  1910). 

Chavannes,  E.  Memoires  historiques,  vol.  i,  Introduction  to  tr.  of  the 
Tao-Teh-King  (Paris,  1S95). 

Dvorak,  R.    China's  Religionen,  No.  2  (Minister,  1903). 

Heysingor,  J.  W.  The  Light  of  China  (metrical  version  of  the  Tao-Teh- 
King)  (Philadelphia,  1903). 

Oceania 
RATZEL,  F.    History  of  Mankind  (Eng.  tr.,  London,  1 896-1 898). 
Frazer,  J.  G.    Totemism  and  Exogamy,  Index  (London,  1910) ;  The  Belief 

in  Immortality  and  the  Worship  of  the  Dead  (the  Gifford  Lectures,  191 1- 

191 2)  (London  and  New  York). 


6l8       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Bastian  A.    Inselgruppen  in  Oceania  (Berlin,  1S83). 

Keane,  A.  H.  Article  "Australasia"  (in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics). 

Polynesia 
Mariner,  W.    Tonga  Islands  (London,  1817). 
Grey,  G.    Polynesian  Mythology  (Auckland,  1885). 
Ellis,  W.    Polynesian  Researches  (London,  1859);  Tour  around  Hawaii 

(London,  1829). 
Jarves,  J.  J.    History  of  the  Hawaiian  Islands  (Honolulu,  1S72). 
Bastian,  A.    Zur  Kenntniss  Hawaiis  (Berlin,  1SS3). 

Alexander,  W.  D.   Brief  History  of  the  Hawaiian  People  (London,  1892). 
^CHELis,  Thos.    Ueber  Mythologie  und  Cultus  von  Hawaii,  1895  (reprint 

from  Ausland,  1893). 
Taylor,  R.    New  Zealand  and  its  Inhabitants  (London,  1870). 
Gill,  W.    Myths  and  Songs  of  the  South  Pacific  (London,  1S76). 
Turner,  G.    Samoa  (London,  1884). 

Kramer,  A.    Hawaii,  Ostmikronesien  und  Samoa  (Stuttgart,  1906). 
Tregear,  E.    The  Maori  race  (Wanganui,  New  Zealand,  1904). 
Shortland,    E.     Traditions    and    Superstitions   of  the   New    Zealanders 

(London,  1854). 
Bassler,  A.  Siidsee  Bilder  (Berlin,  1 895);  Neue  Siidsee  Bilder  (Berlin,  1 900). 

Melanesia 
Williams,  J.,  and  Calvert,  J.    Fiji  and  the  Fijians  (London,  1870). 
Codrington,  R.  H.    The  Melanesians  (Oxford,  1S91). 
Seligmann,  C.  G.   The  Melanesians  of  British  New  Guinea  (Cambridge, 

England,  1910). 
Brown,  George.    Melanesians  and  Polynesians  (London  and  New  York, 

1910). 
Furness,  W.  H.,  3d.    The  Island  of  Stone-Money  (Uap  of  the  Carolines), 

(Philadelphia  and  London,  19 10). 

Australia  and  Tasmania 
Spencer,  B.,  and  Gillen,  J.    Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia  (London, 

1899);  Northern  Tribes  of  Central  Australia  (London,  1904). 
Howitt,  A.  \V.    Native  Tribes  of  South-East  Australia  (London,  1904). 
Parker,  Mrs.  K.  L.    The  Euahlayi  Tribe  (London,  1905). 
Gennep,  A.  v.    Mythes  et  legendes  d'Australie  (Paris,  1906). 
Thomas,    N.    W.     Native   Tribes    of   Australia   (London,    1907);    article 

"Australia"  (in  Encyclopaedia  of  Religion  and  Ethics). 
Tylor,  E.  B.    On  the  Tasmanians  as  Representatives  of  Palaeolithic  Man, 

Joiirnal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xxiii. 

Malay  Archipelago  and  the  Philippines 
Marsden,  W.    History  of  Sumatra  (London,  181 1). 
Bock,  C.    Head-hunters  of  Borneo  (London,  1881). 


SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     619 

Man,  E.  II.    The  Aboriginal  Inhabitants  of  the  Andaman  Islands,  Journal 

of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xii  (London,  1885). 
Wallace,  A.  R.    The  Malay  Archipelago  (London,  1890). 
WlLKEN,  G.  A.    Ilet  shamanisme  bij  de  volken  van  den  Indischen  Archipel 

('S-Hage,  1887). 
Kruijt,  A.  C.    Het  animisme  in  den  indischen  Archipel  ('S-Gravenhage, 

1906). 
Sarasin,  P.  and  F.   Die  Weddas  von  Ceylon  und  die  umgebenden  Volker- 

schaften  (Wiesbaden,  1S93). 
Roth,  II.  L.   The  Natives  of  Sarawak  and  British  North  Borneo  (London. 

1896). 
Haddon,  A.  C.    Head-hunters,  Black,  White  and  Brown  (London,  1901). 
Furness,  W.  H.,  3d.    Home-life  of  Borneo   Head-hunters   (Philadelphia, 

1902). 
Morris,  Miss  M.    Harvest  Gods. of  the  Land  Dyaks  of  Borneo,  Journal  of 

the  American  Oriental  Society  (July,  1905). 
Hurgronye,  C.  Snouck.    The  Achehnese  (London,  1906). 
Warneck,  J.    Die  Religion  der  Batak  (in  J.  Bohmer's  Religionsurkunden 

der  Volker,  Abth.  iv,  Bd.  i)  (Leipzig,  1909). 
Reports  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology  of  the  Philippine  Government. 
Journal  of  American  Folklore. 
Philippine  Journal  of  Science,  Manila. 
Bureau  of  A  m  erica  n  Eth  no  logy. 
Blumentritt,  F.    Diccionario  mitologico  de  Philippinas  (2d  ed.,  Madrid, 

1895)- 
Beyer,  II.  O.,  and  Barton,  R.  F.    An  Ifugao  Burial  Ceremony  (reprint 
from  Philippine  Journal  of  Science)  ( 1 9 1 1 ) . 

North  America 

Relation  des  Jesuites  de  la  Nouvelle  France  [17th  century]  (edited,  with 
Eng.  tr.,  by  R.  G.  Thwaites,  Cleveland,  1901). 

Parkman,  F.  The  Jesuits  in  North  America  in  the  Seventeenth  Century 
(London,  1867). 

Williams,  Roger.    Key  into  the  Language  of  America  (London,  1643). 

Hodge,  F.  W.  Handbook  of  American  Indians  North  of  Mexico  (Wash- 
ington, 1907-1910). 

Journal  of  American  Folklore  (Boston  and  New  York). 

Smith,  John.  General  History  of  Virginia  (London,  1627 ;  new  issue,  1907). 

Strachey,  W.  Ilistorie  of  Travaile  into  Virginia  Britannia  (1618;  ed. 
R.  II.  Major,  London,  1849). 

Henderson,  S.  R.  The  Government  and  Religion  of  the  Virginia  Indians, 
Johns  Hopkins  University  Studies  in  History  and  Political  Science,  xiii 
(Baltimore). 

Muller,  J.  G.   Geschichte  der  amerikanischen  Urreligionen  (Basel,  1867). 


620       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Schoolcraft,  H.  R.  Indian  Tribes  of  the  United  States  (Philadelphia, 
1851-1860). 

Bancroft,  H.  H.  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States  of  North  America 
(New  York,  187  5-1 87 6). 

Winsor,  J.    Narrative  and  Critical  History  of  America  (Boston,  18S9). 

Payne,  E.  J.    History  of  the  New  World,  called  America  (Oxford,  1899). 

Cushing,  F.  H.  My  Adventures  in  Zuhi,  Century  Magazine  (New  York, 
May,   1 883). 

Fletcher,  Alice.  Indian  Ceremonies  (from  the  Sixteenth  Report  of  the 
Peabody  Museum  of  American  Archeology  and  Ethnology  (Cambridge, 
Mass.,  1883)  (Salem,  Mass.,  1S84). 

Gatschet,  A.  S.  A  Migration  Legend  of  the  Creek  Indians  (Philadelphia, 
1884). 

Brinton,  D.  G.    The  Lenape  and  their  Legends  (Philadelphia,  rS85). 

Fewkes,  J.  \V.  The  Winter  Solstice  Ceremony  at  Walpi  (reprinted  from 
the  American  Anthropologist,  xi)  (Washington,  1S9S). 

Matthews,  W.    Navaho  Legends  (Boston  and  New  York,  1S97). 

Boas,  F.  The  Indians  of  British  Columbia  (reprinted  from  Report  of  the 
British  Association,  1889)  (London);   The  Kwakiutl  (Washington,  1S97). 

Teit,  J.  Traditions  of  the  Thompson  River  Indians  of  British  Columbia 
(Boston  and  New  York,  1898). 

Morice,  A.  G.  Notes  ...  on  the  Western  Denes,  Transactions  of  the 
Canadian  Institute  (1S94). 

Will,  G.  F.,  and  Spinden,  H.  J.  The  Mandans  [of  North  Dakota], 
(Peabody  Museum,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  1906). 

Hill-Tout,  C.    British  North  America  (the  Far  West)  (London,  1907). 

Dixon,  R.  B.  The  Northern  Maidu  [of  California],  Bulletin  of  American 
Museum  of  Natural  History,  vol.  xvii  (New  York,  1905);  The  Shasta 
(California),  ibid.  (New  York,  1907);  The  Chimariko  Indians,  University 
of  California  Publications  in  American  Archeology  and  Ethnology  (Berke- 
ley, 1910). 

Cranz,  D.    History  of  Greenland  (London,  1820). 

Rink,  H.  J.  Tales  and  Traditions  of  the  Eskimo  (Edinburgh  and  London, 
1875);  The  Eskimo  Tribes  (Copenhagen  and  London,  1887). 

Boas,  F.  The  Central  Eskimo,  Reports  of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  1S84- 
1885  (Washington,  1888). 

Rasmussen,  Knud.    People  of  the  Polar  North  (London,  1908). 

Radin,  P.,  and  Gray,  L.  H.  Article  M  Eskimos  "  (in  Hastings's  Encyclo- 
paedia of  Religion  and  Ethics). 


Mor 


monism 


Riley,   I.    W.     The   Founder  of   Mormonism,  a  Psychological  Study  of 

Joseph  Smith  (New  York,  1902). 
Linn,  W.  A.    The  Story  of  the  Mormons  ...  to  the  Year  1901  (New  York, 

1902). 


SELECTED  LIST  OF  BOOKS  OF  REFERENCE     621 

Meyer,  Edouard.  Ursprung  und  Geschichte  der  Mormonen  (Halle  a.  S., 
1912). 

Mexico 

Sahagun,   F.   B.   de.     Ilistoria  general   de   las  cosas  de   Nueva    Espafta 

(Mexico,  1 829-1830,  and  Fr.  tr.). 
Acosta,  J.  de.    Historia  de  las  Indias  (Eng.  tr.,  C.  R.  Markham,  London, 

18S0). 
Herrera,  A.  de.     Historia  de  las  Indias  Ocidentales  (Eng.  tr.,  London, 

1825-1826). 
Seler,  E.    Altmexikanische  Studien,  Publications  of  Berlin  Museum  fur 

Vblkerkunde,  vi  (1899);  Gesammelte  Abhandlungen  zur  amerikanischen 

Sprach-  und  Alterthumskunde  (Berlin,  1 902-1 909). 
PRESCOTT,  W.  II.    Conquest  of  Mexico  (Boston,  1843). 
Reville,  A.    Native  Religions  of  Mexico  and  Peru  (London,  1S84). 
Spence,  L.    Mythologies  of  Ancient  Mexico  and  Peru  (London,  1907). 
Preuss,  K.  T.    Die  Feuergotter  als  Ausgangspunkt  zum  Verstandniss  der 

mexikanischen    Religion,   Mitteilungen   der    [Wiener]    anthropologischen 

Gesellschaft  (1903). 
Nutall,  Zelia.   A  Penitential  Rite  of  the  Ancient  Mexicans,  Archceological 

and  Ethnological  Papers  of  the   Peabody  Museum,  Harvard  University 

(Cambridge,  Mass.,  1904). 
Toy,  C.  H.    Mexican  Human  Sacrifice,  fourual  of  American  Poll-lore  (Bos- 
ton and  New  York,  1905). 

Central  America 

Brinton,  D.  G.  The  Names  of  the  Gods  in  the  Kiche  Myths  of  Central 
America,  Proceedings  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society  (Philadelphia, 
1881)  ;  The  Annals  of  the  Cakchiquels  (Philadelphia,  1S85)  ;  Nagualism, 
a  Study  in  Native  American  Folklore  and  History  (Philadelphia,  1S94). 

Schellhas,  P.  Representations  of  Deities  of  the  Maya  Mss.  (Eng.  tr.  of 
2d  ed.  in  Papers  of  the  Peabody  Museum,  Harvard  University)  (Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  1904). 

TOZZER,  A.  M.  Comparative  Study  of  the  Mayas  and  Lacandones  [of 
Yucatan]  (New  York  and  London,  1907). 

Porto  Rico 

FEWKES,  J.  W.  Aborigines  of  Porto  Rico  (in  Reports  of  the  Bureau  of 
Ethnology,  xxv)  (Washington). 

South  America 

La  Vega,  Garcilaso  de.    Comentarios  reales  de  los  Tncas  (1609;    Kng. 

tr.,  ed.  C.  R.  Markham,  Rites  and  Laws  of  the  Yncas)  (London,  1870). 
Prescott,  W.  H.    Conquest  of  Peru  (Boston,  1847). 


622       INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 

Bernau,  J.  IT.    Missionary  Labors  in  British  Guiana  (London,  1S47). 

Im  Thurn,  F.    Among  the  Indians  of  Guiana  (London,  18S3). 

Reville  and  Spence.    See  under  '  Mexico.' 

Hyades,  P.,  and  Deniker,  J.  Mission  scientifique  du  Cap  Horn  (Paris, 
1S82-1SS3,  1891-         ). 

Von  den  Steinen,  K.  Unter  den  Naturvolkern  Zentral-Brasiliens  (Ber- 
lin, 1894). 

Bassler,  A.    Altperuanische  Kunst  (1902). 

Ehrenreich,  P.  Mythen  und  Legenden  der  siidamerikanischen  Urvolker 
(Berlin,  1905). 

Farabee,  W.  C.   Some  Customs  of  the  [Peruvian]  Machegongos  (reprinted 

•   from  Proceedings  of the  American  Antiquarian  Society)  (Worcester,  1909). 

Africa 

Waitz-Gari.and.    Anthropologic  der  Naturvdlker  (Leipzig,  1859-1S72). 

Ellis,  W.    History  of  Madagascar  (London,  1838). 

Fritsch,  G.    Die  Eingeborenen  Siid-Afrika's  (Breslau,  1S72). 

Hahn,  Til  Tsuni-Goam,  the  Supreme  Being  of  the  Khoi-Khoi  (London, 
1 881). 

Macdonald,  D.    Africana  (London,  1882). 

Macdonald,  J.  Manners,  Customs,  Superstitions  and  Religions  of  South- 
African  Tribes,  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  Institute,  xix,  xx  (Lon- 
don);  East  Central  African  Customs,  ibid.,  xxii  (London,  1S93). 

Callaway,  H.    Religious  System  of  the  Amazulu  (Natal,  1868-1870). 

Ellis,  A.  B.  The  Tshi-speaking  Peoples  of  the  Gold  Coast  of  West 
Africa  (London,  1887);  The  Ewe-speaking  Peoples  of  the  Slave  Coast  of 
West  Africa  (London,  1890) ;  The  Yoruba-speaking  Peoples  of  the  Slave 
Coast  of  West  Africa  (London,  1894). 

Schneider,  W.  Religion  der  afrikanischen  Naturvdlker  (Miinster,  West- 
phalia, 1891). 

Hanoteau,  A.,  and  Letourneaux,  A.    La  Kabylie  (2d  ed.,  Paris,  1893). 

Westermarck,  E.  Nature  of  the  Arab  Ginn,  Journal  of  the  Anthropological 
Institute  (London,  1900) ;  L'ar,  or  the  Transference  of  Conditional  Curses 
in  Morocco  (in  Anthropological  Essays  presented  to  E.  B.  Tylor)  (Oxford, 
1907). 

Kingsley,  Mary.  Travels  in  West  Africa  (London,  1897);  West  African 
Studies  (London,  1901). 

Theal,  G.  M.  Records  of  South-Eastern  Africa  (London,  1S98-1900); 
History  and  Ethnography  of  South  Africa  (London,  1907-1910). 

Quatrefages,  A.  de.    The  Pygmies  (Eng.  tr.,  New  York,  1895). 

Johnston,  H.  The  Pygmies  of  the  Great  Congo  Forest,  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tution Reports,  1902  (Washington). 

Schmidt,  W.  Stellung  der  Pygmaenvolker  in  der  Entwicklungsgeschichte 
des  Menschen  (Stuttgart,  1910). 


SELECTED  LIST  OE  BOOKS  OE  REFERENCE     623 

Mac-Ritchie,  D.  Article  "Dwarfs  and  Pygmies"  (in  Hastings's  Encyclo- 
paedia of  Religion  and  Ethics). 

Frobenitjs,  L.  Ursprung  der  afrikanischen  Kulturen  (1898;  Eng.  tr.  in 
Smithsonian  Institution  Reports,  [898,  Washington). 

HlNDE,  S.  L.,  and  Mrs.  HlLDEGARDE.  The  Last  of  the  Masai  (London, 
1 901). 

Holeis,  A.  C.    The  Masai  (Oxford,  1905);  The  Nandi  (Oxford,  1909). 

Nassau,  R.  H.    Fetichism  in  West  Africa  (London,  1904). 

KlDD,  1).    The  Essential  Kafir  (London,  1904). 

Johnston,  II.    The  Uganda  Protectorate  (London,  1904). 

Partridge,  C.    Cross  River  Natives  (London,  1905). 

Roscoe,  J.  Manners  and  Customs  of  the  Baganda,  Journal  of  the  Anthro- 
pological Institute,  xxxi,  xxxii  (London);  The  Bahima,  ibid,  xxxvii 
(London). 

Brun,  P.  Croyances  et  pratiques  religieuses  des  Malinkes  fetichistes, 
Antliropos,  ii  (Salzburg,  1907). 

Leonard,  A.  G.    The  Lower  Niger  and  its  Tribes  (London,  1906). 

Milligan,  R.  H.    The  Fetish  Folk  of  West  Africa  (New  York,  191 2). 


INDEX 


(The  Arabic  figures  refer  to  paragraphs) 


Ablutions,  sacred,  197 
Abnegation,  offering  as,  1040 
Abraham,  abrogation  of  human  sacri- 
fice ascribed  to,  847 
Abstractions,  gods  of,  695  ff. 
Abydos,    chief  seat   of   worship   of 

Osiris,  728 
Acts,  ritual,  magical  power  in,  10 19 
Adam  Kadmon,  735 
^Eschines  as  mystagogue,  1099  n.  1 
Aesculapius,   shrine   of,   incubation 

at,  922 
Aeshma,  prominent  position  of,  738 
Africa,  clan  deities  in,  645  ;  food  re- 
strictions in,  457;   myths  of  clan 
origins  in,  450 
Africa,  Central,  Islam  in,  11 46 
Africa,  West,  polypsychism  in,  39 
Agdistis,  birth  of,  288  n.  2  ;  cult  of, 

413 
Age,  mythopceic,  821 
017105,  sense  of,  626  n.  9 
Agnosticism,  Chinese,  1006 
Agriculture,  sacrifices  in,  1035 
Ahura  Mazda,  relation  of,  to  Varuna, 

742 

Ainu,  the,  bear-cult  of,  257  ;  gods  of, 
661,  672 

Alexander,  deification  of,  340,  347 

Alexandrian  canon,  11 30 

Ali,  deification  of,  355 

Allah,  cultic  significance  of,  766 

Al-Lat,  local  nature  of,  764 

Allegory,  science  of,  863 

Altar,  origin  of,  297,  1081 ;  religious 
purification  of,  195 

Al-Uzza,  local  nature  of,  764 

Amenhotep  IV,  reform  of,  727 

America,  examination  of  dead  in, 
76;  gods  of,  662-665;  guardian 
spirits  in,  504 ;  polypsychism  in, 
39;  power  of  priests  in,  532;  social 


organizations  in,  499;  tribal  badges 
in,  446;  trickster  heroes  in,  633 

America,  North,  food  restrictions 
in,  458 

America,  Northwest,  religiously  in- 
ferior to  the  Eastern  tribes,  527 

Amesha-spentas,  the,  320,  703,  738 

Amon-Ra,  supremacy  of,  727 

Amulets,  phallos  and  yoni  as,  405, 
406  n.  3 

Anahita,  739 

Ancestor-worship,  360  ff . ;  moral 
power  of,  380  ;  origin  of  totemism 
sought  in,  544,  549 

Anchor,  worship  offered  to,  891 

Androgynous  deities,  407  ff. 

Angels,  guardian,  673;  as  rain-givers, 
315  n.  6  ;  originators  of  arts,  S43 

Angro  Mainyu,  976 

Animals,  abodes  of  souls,  25,  31 ; 
connection  of,  with  phallic  deities, 
419;  cult  of,  241-261 ;  domestica- 
tion of,  ascribed  to  totemism.  564- 
569 ;  morning  prayers  to,  573 ; 
whether  religious  sense  in,  1211.2 

Anthesteria,  the,  apotropaic  element 
in,  374;  prohibition  of  work  in,  602 

Aphrodite,  history  of,  793  f. ;  repre- 
sented by  a  stone,  292 

Apocrypha,  the,  recognition  of,  11 31 

Apollo,  development  of,  770;  Del- 
phian hymn  to,  10S8 

Apostle,  Jewish  title,  mon.  2 

Apotheosis,  Roman,  353 

Apuleius,  his  conception  of  Isis,  1 1 1 4 

Arabia,  supposed  abstract  gods  in. 
69S  ff.  ;  worship  of  morning  star 
in,  717 

Aramea,  deities  of,  764 

Areoi,  the,  church-form  of,  1096; 
future  privileges  of,  74 ;  tyranny 
of,  531 

:5 


626     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


Ares,  history  of,  775 

Ark,  the  Israelite,  291 

Arrows,  Arab  divination  by,  918 

Arta,  Vedic,  688 

Artemis,  functions  of,  788;  Ephesian, 
image  of,  300  n.  1 

Arval  Brothers,  the,  Soo 

Asha,  Avestan,  688 

Ashanti,  gods  of,  660 

Ashera,  Hebrew,  origin  of,  272 

Ashtar,  relation  of,  to  Ishtar,  763 

Ashtart,  shem  Baal,  meaning  of,  409 

Ashur,  god,  nature  of,  759 

Ashurbanipal,  dreams  of,  922 

Assyria,  influence  of  priests  in,  1068 

Astrology,development  of,  850,91 4 f. 

Asylums,  graves  as,  369  ;  temples  as, 
1085 

Atargatis,  origin  and  cult  of,  399 

Aten,  as  sole  ruler,  9S9 

Atharva-Veda,  magic  in,  902 

Athene,  history  of,  791  f. 

Athtar,  relation  of,  to  Ishtar,  763 

Atonement,  Hebrew  annual  cere- 
mony of,   142 

Attis,  origin  and  cult  of,  271,  413, 
1066;  death  of,  283 

Augustus,  religious  reconstruction 
by,  353 ;  temples  consecrated  to, 

347 

Australia,  absence  of  sacrifice  in,  10; 
ceremonies  of,  blood  in,  10;  crea- 
tors in,  639;  food  restrictions  in, 
452;  rain  clan  in,  136;  rites,  eco- 
nomic, in,  460;  totemism  in,  468  ff. 

Australia,  North,  prohibition  of  eat- 
ing totem  in,  470 

Authority,  religious,  absolute,  claim 
to,  1 140 

Azazel,  head  of  fallen  angels,  692  ; 
lord  of  wilderness  and  receiver  of 
Jewish  national  sins,  142 

Baal-shamem,  meaning  of,  409 

Baalzebub,  meaning  of,  671;  oracle 
of,  927 

Bab,  the,  function  of,  11 20 

Babe,  as  child  of  God,  188 

Babylonia,  influence  of  priests  in, 
1068;  local  gods  in,  650;  omens 
in,  912;  Semitic  mythopceic  cen- 
ter, 86S  ;  unlucky  days  in,  611 

Badges,  function  of,  501-503;  sup- 
posed origin  of  totems,  555 


Baetulus,  etymology  of,  294 
Baganda,     the,     totemistic     usages 

among,  457,  511 
Bahaism,  success  of,  1 120 
Bahau'llah,  founder  of  a  church,  and 

claimed  to  be  incarnation  of  God, 

1 120 
Baiame,  clan  god,  644 
Bakuana,     the,     food     restrictions 

among,  457 
Banana,  incarnation  of  dead  chief, 

479 
Baptism,  infant,  result  of  its  intro- 
duction,    mo;     proselyte,     198; 
quasi-magical  power  attributed  to, 

i9Sn-3 

Bards,  Australian,  106 

Bathing,  removal  of  taboo  by,  616 

Bau,  goddess  of  fertility,  761 

Bear,  as  messenger,  1024 

Beasts,  pantheon  of,  248 

Beelzebul,  origin  of,  671 

Beings,  savage,  whether  regarded  as 
eternal,  984  f. ;  two  supernatural, 
opposed  to  each  other,  969 

Bene-Israel,  the,  persistence  of  Jew- 
ish customs  among,  224  n.  3 

Bengal,  oracles  in,  927 

Bethel,  Hebrew,  meaning  of,  294 

Bible,  the,  results  of  study  of,  1 135 

Bird,  the,  symbol  of  soul,  25 

Birth,  supposed  cause  of,  34 

Blood,  connection  of,  with  life,  23  ; 
expiatory  power  of,  1026;  inocu- 
lation with,  in  marriages,  178; 
kinship  of,  totemic,  441 

Body,  the,  as  seat  of  life,  26 ;  re- 
garded as  by  nature  nonsacred, 
205 

Boedromia,  the,  845 

Bombay,  Parsiism  in,  1145 

Bones,  animal,  not  to  be  broken, 
127  ;  divination  by,  920 

Borneo,  harvest  taboos  in,  599 ; 
oracles  in,  927 

Bo-tree,  the,  worship  under,  281 

Boundaries,  gods  of,  704 

Bowels,  the,  as  seat  of  emotion,  27 

Brahma,  impersonal,  730 ;  meaning 
of,  703 

Brain,  the,  relation  of,  to  thought, 
2S  ;  Arabic  conception  of,  28 

Brides,  taboos  on,  179 

Brotherhood,  blood-,  169 


JXDEX 


627 


Buddhism,    agnosticism    of,     1007 ; 

canons    of,    11 29;     diffusion    of, 

1142,    1147 
Bull,  the,  worship  of,  258 
Bunjil,  Australian,  nature  of,  644 
Burma,  Buddhism  in,  1142 
Bush,  burning,  god  in,  279 
Bushmen,  cult  of  mantis  by,  257 
Byblos,  sacred  prostitution  at,  1066 

Cadmus,  culture-hero,  843 

Caelus,  722 

Caesar,  Julius,  deified,  353 

Cainites,  the,  693 

C,  akti,  cult  of,  734 

(^aktism,  cultic  significance  of,  406 

Calendars,  savage,  210  f. 

Calif  Omar,  embassy  of,  to  Persia, 

916 
California,  cosmogony  in,  829;  ghost 

dance  in,  108 
Caligula,  divine  honors  accorded  to, 

347  ,    . 

Canaan,  sun-cult  in,  753 

Canons,  religious,  ii28ff. 

(^aoshyanc,  the,  prophetic  function 
of,  348  ' 

Caracalla,  enrollment  of,  among  the 
heroes,  353  n.  2 

Carthage,  cult  of  Tanit  in,  410 

Ceremonies,  marriage-,  whether 
essentially  religious,  178-1S3;  re- 
ligious, merrymaking  in,  1057  ;  re- 
ligious, later  interpretation  of,  103 

Ceres,  origin  of,  S03 

Ceylon,  Buddhism  in,  1142 

Chaldeans,  astrological  science  of, 
914  f. ;  charlatanry  of,  927 

Chaos,  philosophical  conception  of, 
6S5 

Charms,  animal  and  vegetable,  229 ; 
attitude  of  men  toward,  239 

Chastity,  origin  of  demand  for,  594 

Chiefs,  relief  from  taboo  by,  615; 
sacredness  of,  595 

Child,  death  of,  ceremonies  at, 
191  n.  4  ;  name  of,  how  chosen, 
187;  new-born,  purification  of,  by 
water,  197;  perils  of,  589;  pre- 
natal influence  on,  48] 
Childbirth,  future  of  women  dying 

in,  75 
Children,  firstborn,  sacrifice  of,  134  ; 
savage  training  of,  146 


China,  Buddhism  in,  1142;  concep- 
tion of  kinship  with  the  dead  in, 
193;  divinization  of  emperor  in, 
345;  expulsion  of  spirits  in,  140; 
no  priestly  class  in  national  re- 
ligion of,  1074;  official  religion 
of,  748  ;  polypsychism  in,  39 ;  sky 
and  earth  as  progenitors  in,  992; 
stress  on  earthly  life  in,  992;  su- 
premacy of  Heaven  in,  992  ;  tute- 
lary gods  in,  672 

Christendom,  development  of  ritual 
in,  1060 

Christian  canon,  formation  of,  1131 

Christian  monachism,  11 26 

Christian  writers,  early,  interpreta- 
tion of  myths  by,  873 

Christianity,  diffusion  of,  1 144,  1 147  ; 
dualism  of,  977 

Chunder  Sen,  church-founder,  11 19 

Church,  Buddhistic,  1106;  pre- 
Christian  idea  of,  1101 

Churches,  origin  and  function  of, 
1095  ff . ;  influence  of,  1 137  ff. ; 
temptations  of,  11 39 

Cicero,  on  cerebrum  as  seat  of  mind, 
28  ;  on  origin  of  the  soul,  36 

Circumambulation,    object  of,  112 

Circumcision,  153-168 

Civa,  733  

Civilization,     mythical     origin     of, 

843 
Clan,  rain-,  Australian,  136;  relation 
of,  to  marriage  customs,  423;  sup- 
posed deliberate  choice  of  totem 

bY>  554  . 

Clans,  mythical  origin  of,  450;  non- 

exogamous  totemic,  436 
Clanship,  totemic,  religious  side  of, 

571 
Climate,  effect  of,  on  totemic  usages, 

470;  Iranian,  976  n.  3 
Clothing,  origin  of,  1 14 
Code,  moral,   regarded    as    will    of 

God,  1166 
Codes,  good  and  bad,  accepted  by 

religion,  1 162  f. 
Conceptional   theory   of   the   origin 

of  totemism,  5  [S 
Conceptions,     mythical,     historical 

development  of,   S71 
Conduct,    association    of,    with    re- 
ligion,  1  1')  1 
Confucianism  not  ecclesiastical,  1 103 


628     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


Confucius,  deified,  354  ;  teaching  of, 
1 103 

Congo,  death  of  souls  held  in,  48 

Conscience,  religious  development 
of,  1 1 70 

Consecration  by  sacrifice,  1033 

Constitution,  savage  social,  com- 
posite character  of,  620 

Control,  supernatural,  common  to 
all  religions,  1 149 

Corpse,  savage  attitude  toward, 
590 

Corruption,  monachistic,  n 27 

Cosmogonies,  civilized,  829  ff. ;  sav- 
age, 255,  829 

Cosmogony,  Babylonian,  316;  He- 
brew, 830  n.  5 

Courtesans,  temple-,  in  West  Africa 
and  India,  1066 

Couvade,  the,  589;  origin  of,  1S5 

Coyote,  the,  malicious,  634 ;  place 
of  soul  of,  31  n.  4 

Creation,  Iranian,  out  of  nothing, 
830  n.  3  ;   myths  of,  828-833 

Creatianism,  37 

Creators,  American,  678 ;  mutually 
antagonistic,  831 

Creeds,  value  of  elasticity  in,  11 36 

Crests,  relation  of,  to  totem,  502 

Criminals,  detection  of,  by  divina- 
tion, 91S 

Cult,  synagogal,  national  character 
of,  1 108 

Cults,  alien,  adoption  of,  1148  n.  1  ; 
collocation  of,  279;  individuality 
of,  how  obscured,  1153  ;  orgiastic, 
derived  from  Asia  Minor,  1101; 
popular,  polytheistic,  986 

Culture,  as  basis  of  classification  of 
religions,  1 1  50 

Culture-heroes,  637  ff. 

Curse,  conditional,  926 

Curses  and  blessings,  relation  of,  to 
worship,  1090 

Customs,  mythical  origin  of,  844  f. 

Cyprus,  supposed  bisexual  deity  in, 
411 

Dahomi,  cult  of  indwelling  spirit  in, 
43  n.  2  ;  ghost  as  family  protector 
m>  533 !  g°ds  of,  660 
Daiincmia,  Greek,  as  demons,  890 
Dance,  Green  Corn,  Cherokee,  490; 
Snake,  economic,  461  n.  1 


Dances,  cultic  role  of,  106  ff.;  sym- 
bolic, 1032 

Danger,  magical,  origin  of,  586 

Daniel,  book  of,  resurrection  in,  90 

Daramulun,  origin  of,  644 

Dead,  the,  as  advocates,  94 ;  as  un- 
derground deities,  372  ;  Babylo- 
nian prayer  to,  371;  Brahmanic 
ceremonies  for,  96 ;  charms  for, 
9511.5;  cult  of,  350  ff.;  dependent 
on  the  living,  361;  magical  coer- 
cion of,  1 02 1 

Death,  infection  of  air  by,  591; 
origin  of,  834  ;  savage  view  of,  38 

Deconsecration  by  sacrifice,  1033 

Dedication,  Jewish  feast  of,  1089 

Deities,  female,  minor  Roman,  803  ; 
immoralities  of,  1013;  nature  of, 
defined  by  science,  1 157  ;  need  of 
caution  in  approaching,  196; 
Roman,  primitive,  797 

Delphi,  sacred  fire  at,  321 

Demeter,  origin  of,  7S4 

Demigods,  dedivinization  of,  358 

Demiurge,  Gnostic,  3 

Demons,  dwelling  in  plants,  266; 
exorcism  of,  139;  future  torture 
by,  75;  relation  of,  to  gods,  694; 
religious  utility  of,  690 

Depravity,  total,  religious  view  of, 
1172 

Devil,  the,  grandmother  of,  643  n.  1 ; 
in  New  Testament,  977 

Diana,  nature  of,  806 

Dido,  self-immolation  of,  1048 

Dies  Irae,  the,  940 

Dionysiac  cult,  partly  Hellenized, 
1099 

Dionysus,  history  of,  776  ff. 

Divination,  definition  0^,905;  organ- 
ization of,  906 

Diviner,  the,  civil  and  social  recogni- 
tion of,  908  ;  ecstatic  state  of,  907 

Divinity,    tutelary,    tenderness    for, 

653. 

Doctrines,  religious,  tried  by  moral 
standards,  1 164 

Dodona,  history  of  oak  of,  279 

Dog,  name  of  male  sacred  prosti- 
tutes, 1066 

Dogmas,  religious,  philosophical 
character  of,  880 

Domestication  of  animals  and  plants, 
relation  of,  to  totemism,  523,564  ff. 


INDEX 


629 


Dough,  images  of,  eaten  in  Mexico, 

Dreams,  as  presages,  921  f. 

Dualism,  968 ff.;  alleged,  of  Iroquois, 
970;  of  mind  and  matter,  1004, 
1007;  Manichsean,  11 15;  mona- 
chistic,  1121;  Persian,  976;  sav- 
age, 683  ff. 

Dukduk,  the,  police  role  of,  531 

Dupuis,  stellar  theory  of,  864,  866 

Durga,  reverence  for,  693 

Dusares,  origin  of,  764 

Dyaks,  Sea-,  deities  of,  659 

Dyaus,  role  of,  734 

Dylan,  Celtic  deity,  974 

Dynasties,  divine,  721  ff. 

Ea,  origin  and  growth  of,  756 
Eating,     whether     sacramental     in 

Australia,   128 
Eclipses,  mythical  cause  of,  849 
Economic  questions,  relation  of  re- 
ligion to,  1 1 63 
Ecstasy  as  condition  of  revelation, 

906  f . 
Eden,  magical  trees  of,  275  ;  story 

of,  959 
Effects,  magical,  how  set  aside,  8S6 
Egbo,  the,  police  role  of,  531 
Egypt,  abstract  gods  of,  701  ;  divine 
animals  slain  in,  888 ;    kings  of, 
deified afterdeath, 352;  phallicism 
in,  397  ;  power  of  priests  in,  1067  ; 
Ptolemaic  monks  in,   1123;    spe- 
cialized gods  in,  666  ;  sun-cult  of, 
712;    tree-worship    in,    2S1  ;    un- 
lucky days  in,  61 1 
El,  meaning  of,  766 
Elder,  Jewish  title,  1 1 10  n.  2 
Elegba,  phallic  character  of,  393 
Elohim,  use  of,  in  Old  Testament, 

766 
Endor,  the  woman  of,  895 
Enlil,  nature  of,  757 
Enoch,    book    of,   Azazel    in,    692 ; 
resurrection    in,    90;     satans    in, 
689  ;  Sheol  in,  85 
Entrails,  divination  by,  919 
Epicurus,  atomic   theory  of,    tooS; 

practical  atheism  of,  1006 
Equinoxes,  calendars  fixed  by,  211, 
215  f. ;     Peruvian   ceremonies   at, 
216 
Eremites,  Brahmanic,  1122 


Erinyes,  the,  function  of,  974 
Erythrae,  Sibyl  of,  937 
Eshmun,  character  of,  764 
Eskimo,  the  animals  revered  by,  505; 

destruction   of  the  soul  held  by, 

[6 

Essenes,  the.  1  1  25 

Eternal,  a  term  not  found  in  savage 

thought,  985 
Ethics,  relation  of,  to  religion,  1 161  ff. 
Euhemerism,  359,  382 
Europe,  Islam  in,  1146 
Evil,  moral,  existence  of,  how  treated 

by  religion,  1 171 
Exogamy,  origin  of,  429  ff. 
Expiation  by  sacrifice,  1033 
Eye,  the,  palpitation  of,  omen,  916 
Ezekiel,  taboos  in  ritual  of,  597 

Family,  the,  Polynesian  social  unit, 

485 

Fasting,  religious,  204-208 

Fate,  in  Homer  and  Hesiod,  998 

Fates,  the,  687 

Father,  the,  perils  of,  589 

Fathers,  the,  Hindu  and  Persian, 
worship  paid  to,  371 

Feasts,  communal,  economical  func- 
tion of,  1023  ;  funeral,  origin  of, 
19011.3,364;  Mithraic,  1043,  1046 

Ferryman,  souls  conducted  by,  65 

Festivals,  licentious,  nonreligious, 
387;  Priapic,  402;  religious,  in- 
fluence of,  1089 

Fetish,  definition  of,  230  n.  2 ; 
African,   cult   of,   540 

Figures,  divine,  composite,  725,  861 

Fiji,  examination  of  dead  in,  78,  81  ; 
extinction  of  soul  held  in,  48 ; 
future  punishment  in,  72  ;  poly- 
psychism  in,  39;  village  deities  in, 
482 

Fire,  sacredness  of,  318 ff.;  theft  of, 
318  n.  1 

Flood,  great,  stories  of,  832 

Folk-lore,  material  of,  859 

Folk-tales,  scurrilous  feature  in,  247 

Food,  sacramental  sharing  of,  1023 

Force,  personal,  moral,  religious  con- 
ception of.  1  1  58 

Form,  literary,  of  myths.  856 

Forms,  liturgical,  symbolical  inter- 
pretation of,  1 061 

Fortune,  personalized  as  deity,  702 


6 SO     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


Fortunes,  human,  determined  on 
new  year's  day,  214 

Founders,  shrines  to,  357  ;  the  three 
great,  1151 

Fravashis,  the,  as  guardians,  673 

Frazer,  J.  G.,  on  the  death  of  the 
god,  1047 

Fuegians,  fear  anger  of  a  super- 
natural being,  1161 

Funerals,  buffoonery  at,  364  n.  5 

Fung-Shui,  nature  of,  926 

Fusion,  social,  basis  of  religious 
unity,  1 147 

Gad,  deity,  whether  abstract,  699 

Gehenna,  New  Testament  concep- 
tion of,  85 

Genealogies,  savage  and  civilized, 
840  f. 

Genesia,  the  Greek,  1089 

Genesis,  book  of,  accounts  of  crea- 
tion in,  830  n.  5  ;  table  of  nations 
in,  841 

Genius,  the,  672 ;  resemblance  of, 
to  mana,  233  ;  not  a  separate  per- 
sonality, 43 

Ghosts,  Australian  belief  in,  18  ;  dif- 
ference of,  from  gods,  635;  fear 
of,  139,  366;  occupations  of,  61  ; 
police  function  of,  379;  prayers 
addressed  to,  367 

Giants,  Greek  and  Teutonic,  686 

Gifts,  to  gods,  material  of,  1022; 
utilized  by  worshipers,  1023 

Gilgamesh,  adventures  of,  853  ;  con- 
sultation of,  927  ;  myth  of,  959 

Girls,  marriage  of,  to  trees,  274 

God,  the,  definition  of,  635,  643; 
genesis  of,  636 

God,  Sons  of,  in  Old  Testament, 
343;  transcendence  of,  1004 

Goddesses,  Babylonian  and  Assyri- 
an, 760  ff. ;  Egyptian,  729;  Greek, 
781  ff. ;  Hindu,  784;  maiden,  785; 
Roman,  803  ff . 

Gods,  abstract,  695  ff. ;  ancient,  uni- 
versal, 988 ;  antagonism  of,  to  men, 
958;  capture  of,  290  n.  1;  compli- 
cated functions  of,  708  ;  conflicts 
between,  meaning  of,  858 ;  con- 
nection of,  with  planets,  715,  91 5; 
death  of,  50  n.  5  ;  departmental, 
development  of,  656;  identifica- 
tion of,  with  animals,  577  ;  otiose, 


Epicurean,  1006;  process  of 
growth  of,  720  ;  rain-,  local  deities 
as,  314;  relation  of  their  human- 
ization  to  polytheism  and  mono- 
theism, 964  ;  separation  of,  from 
phenomena,  720;  stones  entered 
by,  298;  supremacy  of,  how  deter- 
mined, 724;  whether  developed 
out  of  totems,  577 

Golden  Rule,  the,  formulations  of, 
1162 

Goodwin  Sands,  origin  of,  891  n.  8 

Grandfather,  divine  title,  643 ; 
chameleon  as,  449 

Great  Hare,  the,  856 

Great  Mother,  Ephesian,  789 ;  Phryg- 
ian, Roman  cult  of,  938 

Greece,  abstract  gods  of,  702  ;  con- 
sultation of  dead  in,  927  ;  functions 
of  priests  in,  1072  ;  omens  in,  912  ; 
specialized  gods  in,  667 ;  taboo 
days  in,  603 ;  theistic  scheme  of, 

795 
Greek  Church,  canon  of,  1131 
Greenland,  repair  of  souls  in,  30 
Groves,  as  places  of  worship,  268 
Growth,  social,  religious,  10 15 
Guardians,  animal,  496  ;  plant,  267 
Guinea,    New,    hunting-charms    in, 

129  ;  tribal  badges  in,  445 

Hades,  god,  moral  significance   of, 

7  So 
Hades,   place,    Greek    and    Roman 

gods  of,  682;  organization  of,  69; 

submarine,  67 
Hadith,  value  of,  1133 
Hadrian,  address  of,  to  soul,  25  n.  3 
Half-sister,  marriage  with,  428 
Hammurabi,    code    of,    ordeal    in, 

925 
Hannibal,  oath  of,  308 

Hanuman,  monkey-god,  not  totemic, 

577  n.  3 
Haoma,  deification  of,  270 
Haram,  Arabian,  sanctity  of,  1082 
Haruspex,  function  of,  931 
Hawaii,  death  of  souls  held  in,  48; 

fishery  taboos  in,  599;  despotism 

of   taboo    in,   621  ;  overthrow  of 

taboo  in,  629 
Hearth,  sacredness  of,  236 
Heaven,  feeble  Semitic  recognition 

OI>  753  ;  of  Indra,  731 


INDEX 


631 


Heaven  and  Earth,  Hindu,  734 ; 
Maori,  678  ;  marriage-embrace  of, 

3-9 
Heavenly  bodies,  cult  of,  328  ff. ;  sex 

of,  33l 
Hebrews,  ordeal  in  law  of,  925;  taboo 

days  of,  603  ;  tree-cult  of,  272 
Hekate,  function  of,  790 
Hera,  origin  of,  782  f. 
Heracles,  labors  of,  853 
Heraclitus,  sayings  of,  1004 
Hermaphroditos,  415  f. 
Hermes,  development  of,  772 
Herodotus,  phallic  cults  mentioned 

by,  397 

Heroes,  cult  of,  in  Greece,  373;  in 
Torres  Straits  islands,  475  ;  iden- 
tification of,  with  animals,  577 

Hesiod,  division  of  universe  by,  779; 
half-gods  of,  652;  unlucky  days 
mentioned  by,  61 1 

Hestia,  significance  of,  787 

Hiawatha,   how  made    into   a  god, 

358  n.  5 
Hierapolis,  phallic  cult  at,  399 
Histories,  tribal,  in  stones,  302 
Holocaust,  expiation  by,  1045 
Homage,  offering  as  expression  of, 

1040 
Home,   the,  as   center  of  religious 

development,  654 
Homer,  meaning  of  dios  in,  347 
Homilies,  Clementine,  annihilation 

in,  52 
Honover,  the  Mazdean,  magical  use 

of,  900 
Horseshoes,  witches  restrained  by, 

M5 

Horns,  conflict  of,  with  Set,  726; 
kings  identified  with,  339 ;  origi- 
nal character  of,  726;  victory  of, 
not  absolute,  186 

Hubert  and  Mauss,  their  theory  of 
sacrifice,  T049  f- 

Humanism,  11 58 

Hymns,  Egyptian,  Babylonian  and 
Assyrian,  Hebrew,  Hindu,  Aves- 
tan,  Greek,  1087  f. 

Idolatry,  role  of,  1091  ff. 

Images,  eaten  by  Mexicans,  1047; 
formal  development  of,  1091; 
ithyphallic,  389,  402  ff.  ;  symboli- 
cal interpretation  of,  1093 


Immersion,  symbolic  significance  of, 

198 
Imru'1-Kais,  treatment  of  oracle  by, 

927 
Inca,    the,    ecclesiastical  power  of, 

1117    . 
Incarnation,    Ismailic    and    Babist, 

344 

Incense,  food  of  deity,  1025 

Incest,  cause  of  horror  of,  435 

Indecency,  savage,  107 

India,  abstract  gods  of,  703  ;  birth- 
place of  monachism,  1 122  ;  bisex- 
ual cult  in,  416-  harmful  Powers 
not  organized  in,  975  ;  heaven  and 
hell  in,  82  ;  ordeals  in,  925  ;  power 
of  priests  in,  1070;  Sankhya  phi- 
losophy of,  1 007  ;  sun-cult  of ,  7 1 3 ; 
theistic  bodies  in,  1  1 19  n.  3 

Individualism,  fostered  by  churches, 
1138 

India,  development  of,  731,  830 

Infibulation,  162 

Infinite,  the,  sense  of,  9 

Interpretations  of  sacred  books,  1 136 

Intervention,  divine,  rejected  by 
science,  1010 

Intoxication,  inspiration  by,  899 

Introcision,  Australian.  162 

Isaiah,  book  of,  supposed  mention  of 
phallus  in,  398;  secret  cults  de- 
scribed in,  1 100  n.  2 

Ishtar,  origin  and  development  of, 
762  f. ;  descent  of,  to  Hades,  283  ; 
myth  of,  959 

Isis,  origin  of,  729  ;  late  cult  of,  cere- 
monies in,  1059;  organization  of 
the  cult,  1 114 

Isis,  as  magician,  729  ;  as  model  wife 
and  mother,  729 

Islam,  canon  of,  T 133  ;  conquests  of, 
ii46f. ;  no  priesthood  in,  1080; 
not  a  church,  1 1 16 

Ismailic  movement,  the,  11 16 

Israel,  organization  of  priesthood  in, 
1069 

Jacob,  anointment  of  stone  by,  294 

Jainism,  a  nontheistic  church,  1107 

Jamnia,  synod  of.  1 130 

Janus,  nature  of.  799 

Japan,   divinization   of   emperor  in, 

3  |6  ;   phallicism  in.   $95 
Jensen,  mythical  theory  of,  870 


632      IXTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


Jephthah,  daughter  of,  ceremony  of 

mourning  for,  845,  1100 
Jesus,  object  of  his  teaching,  11 10; 

not  an  Essene,  11 25;  resurrection 

of,  ion  n. 
Jews,  formation  of  canon  of,  11 30; 

genius  of,  for  organization  of  pub- 
lic religion,  1 108 
Jubilee,  Hebrew,  object  of,  223 
Judaism,  diffusion  of,  11 43;   failure 

of,  to  create  a  church,  1 108 
Juno,  nature  of,  804 
J  uno,  the,  not  a  separate  personality, 
*   43 ;    representative    of    woman's 

personality,  804 
Jupiter,  origin  and  development  of, 

798  ;  represented  by  a  stone,  292 

Kaaba,  the,  black  stone  of,  295 
Kafirs,  effigies  erected  by,  370 
Kalevala,  the,  mythology  of,  856,  955 
Kami,  Shinto,  meaning  of,  645 
Karens,  the,  Christianization  of,  1 144 
Karma,  Buddhistic,  1007 
Ker,  the,  as  form  of  soul,  25  n.  3 
Khonds,  the,  deities  of,  659 
Khuen-Aten,  reform  of,  989 
Kindness  to  fellows,  universal,  1162 
Kings,    Babylonian,    whether    wor- 
shiped, 341 
Koran,  the,  relation  of,  to  Moslem 
science,     1 1 35 ;     prayer     against 
witches  in,  895 
Kore,  the,  origin  of,  786 
Korea,  Buddhism  in,  1142 
Krishna,    ethical     significance     of, 

733 
Kronids,  the,  governmental  role  of, 

779 
Kronos,  768  n.  3 
Kteis,  the,  veneration  of,  406 
Kybele,  cult  of,  413 

Lamas,  Grand,  ascription  of  divinity 

to,  348 
Language,  origin  of,  no  myths  of,  642 
Lao-tsze,  system  of,  749 
Lapis  manalis,  function  of,  289 
Lapps,   the,   primacy  of,   in  magic, 

902 
Law,    civil,    relation  of,    to    taboo, 

614;    idea   of,   in    charms,    1020; 

natural,  germinal  conception   of, 

7;  natural,  domination  of,  11 58 


League,  Iroquois,  489 

Legend,  connection  of,  with  myth, 

^59  . 

Lemuria,  the,  apotropaic  element  in, 
374  ;  prohibition  of  work  in,  602 

Leto,  Titaness,  788  n.  1 

License,  in  festivals,  135,  219; 
sexual,  adopted  by  religion,  1163 

Life,  annihilation  of,  46,  51  ;  iden- 
tified with  breath,  21  ;  mysteri- 
ousness  of,  385 ;  nobility  given 
to,  by  religion,  11 66,  n  73;  rela- 
tion of  blood  to,  23  ;  unitary  char- 
acter of,  14 

Light,  as  symbol,  857  ;  significance 
of,  in  myths,  858 

Linga,  the,  worship  of,  in  India,  394 

Liver,  the,  as  seat  of  life,  27  ;  divina- 
tion by,  919 

Living,  the,  cult  of,  336  ff. 

Llew,  Celtic  deity,  974 

Loki,  not  independent  creator  of 
evil,  974 ;  tricksy  traits  in,  638 
11.4 

Lot,  wife  of,  288 

Lots,  divinatory  use  of,  918 

Love,  toward  the  deity,  5 ;  as  a 
divine  personality,  704 

Luck,  relation  of,  to  magic,  238 

Lunation,  the,  divisions  of,  606 

Lupercalia,  the,  purification  in,  201 

Maccabees,  Second,  resurrection  in, 
90 

Macrobiotes,  835 

Macrobius,  on  a  bisexual  cult,  411 

Magi,  the,  Mazdean,  897 

Magic,  in  religion,  1090;  methods  of, 
886  ;  no  worship  in,  888  ;  relation 
of,  to  taboo,  61 8  f. ;  to  totemism, 
574 ;  use  of,  for  procuring  food, 
129  ff. ;  when  under  the  ban,  891  ; 
white,  901 

Magician,  office  of,  preparation  for, 
894 

Magicians,  sometimes  political 
rulers,  898  n.  4 

Magna  Mater  of  Pessinus,  291 

Maia,  conjecture    as    to    origin    of, 

845 
Mamertius,  expulsion  of,  143 
Man, early,  logicalness  of,  246;  medi- 
cine, 493  ;  prehistoric,  whether  re- 
ligious, 12 


INDEX 


633 


Mana,  definition  of,  231-236;  pro- 
ducer of  sympathy  between  all 
things,  886;  relation  of,  to  taboo, 
586;   synonyms  of,  231  n.  1 

Manichaeism,    as    a   church,   11 15; 
causes  of  its  success,  978 

Mantis,  Bushman  cult  of,  257 

Mantis,  Greek,  function  of,  931 

Marduk,  cult  of,  758,  990 

Marriage,  restrictions    on,  177  n.  2, 

439 

Mars,  development  of,  800  ;  shield 
of,  845 

Martyr,  spirit  of,  where  shown,  1 167 

Masai,  the,  two  chief  gods  of,  660 

Mashalists,  Hebrew,  862  n.  1 

Massebas,  Canaanite,  293 

Masters  and  servants,  exchange  of 
places  between,  219 

Masturbation,  savage  practice  of, 
163  n.  1 

Materialism,  deistic,  100S 

Matter,  eternity  of,  1005,  1007 

Maui,  Polynesian,  role  of,  678 

Mazdaism,  origin  and  nature  of,  740, 
745  ;  canon  of,  1 132 

Meal,  communal,  reconciliation  of 
deity  by,  1043;  communion  in, 
between  human  participants,  1 044  ; 
eucharistic,  in  "  Teaching  of  the 
Twelve  Apostles,"  1046 

Medicine  man,  the,  892 

Melanesia,  animal  incarnations  in, 
676 ;  cult  of  divinized  men  in, 
647  ;  descent  from  totem  in,  440  ; 
food  restrictions  in,  454  ;  power  of 
chiefs  in,  538  ;  protection  of  prop- 
erty by  taboo  in,  600  ;  specializa- 
tion of  divine  functions  in,  658 

Meleager,  life  of,  dependent  on  a 
piece  of  wood,  274 

Men,  race  of,  preceding  the  present, 

*33 
Mendes,  goat-god  of,  774  n.  6 
Meni,  god,  whether  abstract,  699 
Mercurius,  Roman  development  of, 

not  traceable,  802 
Merneptah,  dream  of,  922 
Mexico,  gods  of,  664;  prominence 

of  priests  in,  1075  ;  sun-cult  of,  71 1 
Minerva,  development  of,  807 
Miracles,  beliefin,  periods  of,  1 1 56ff.; 

grounds    of    objection    to,    1011; 

when  not  demanded,  1 1 59 


Mithra,  birth  of,  288  n.  2;  organiza- 
tion of  cult  of,  1 1 13 
Mithraism,  mysteries  of,  1059 
Mitra,  association  of,  with  Varuna, 

73° 
Mohads,  the,  organization  of,  11  16 
Monachism,  1  121  ff. 
Monasteries,  functions  of,  11 27 
Monolatry,    Hebrew,    influence    of, 

994  f- 
Monotheism,  alleged    savage,   985 ; 

development  of,  987  ff. 
Moon,  the,  cultic  history  of,  714 
Morabits,  the,  organization  of,  11 16 
Morality,    conflict    of,    with    taboo, 

632 
Mother,  the,  magical  perils  of,  589 
Mother,  the  Great,  1066 
Mother-in-law,  the,  taboos  on,  593 
Motifs,  mythical,  tabulation  of,  879 
Mountains  as  abodes  of  souls,  65 
Mourning-usages,  savage,  363 
Mozoomdar,  theistic  reformation  of, 

1 119 
Midler,  F.  Max,  solar  theory  of,  865, 

876 
Midler,   K.  O.,  treatment  of  myths 

by,  875 

Murder,  purification  after,  195 

Music,  temple-,  1088 

Mylitta,  temple  of,  prostitution  at, 
1066 

Mysteries,  Eleusinian,  84  5;  failure 
of,  1097  f . ;  Greek,  ceremonies 
of,   1059;    survival   of  effects  of, 

HOT 

Mystery,  New  Testament  use  of  the 
term,  1101 

Mythology,  relation  of,  to  culture, 
951  ff. 

Myths,  borrowing  of.  823  ff. ;  edu- 
cational value  of,  862  ;  Indo-Euro- 
pean, character  of,  960  ff.;  per- 
sistence of,  88 1 ;  purification  of, 
1 1 57;  savage  origin  of,  822 

Nabonidus,    centralizing    effort    of, 

75 r 

Nagual,  meaning  of,  672 

Names,  demonic,  691  ;  divine,  magi- 
cal power  of,  899;  divine,  Persian, 
743  ;  proper,  of  gods,  646 

Nana,  goddess,  nature  of,  761  ;  car- 
ried off,  888 


634     INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


Nandi,  the,  grain  of,  blessed  by  the 
god,  220  ;  months  how  named  by, 

2I3 

Natchez,  the,  sun-cult  of,  710 

Naturalism,  1 1  58 

Navahos,    the,    creative   beings   of, 

639,645 
Nazirite,  the,  restrictions  on,  597 
Ndengei,  other-world  god,  680 
Necessity,     Plato's    conception    of, 

1 00 1 
Necromancy,  Hebrew,  2,77 
Neith,  inscription  in  temple  of,  729 
Nemi,  priest  of,  274 
Neptunus,  802 

New  Testament,  Satan  in,  689 
Nicknames,    supposed     origin      of 

totemism,  557 
Nightmare,  as  ghost,  61  n.  4 
Nikkal,  Panjab  god,  337 
Niobe,  relation  of,  to  stone-cult,  288 
Nose,  the,  boring   through  septum 

of,  151 

Obelisks,  Egyptian,  function  of,  299 

Odin,  humanization  of,  358 ;  self- 
immolation  of,  1048 

Off  erings,  cannibal,  1027  ;  unbloody, 
placatory  virtue  of,  1038 

Officer,  French,  worshiped  after 
death,  351 

Ogboni,  the,  police  role  of,  531 

Old  Testament,  the,  conception  of 
sacrifice  in,  1037  ;  kings  in,  not 
deified,  343  ;  stars  and  planets  in, 
716 

Olympus,  as  council-house,  305 

On,  seat  of  worship  of  Ra,  727 

Ophites,  the,  693 

Optimism,   religious,    ethical    value 

of'  TI73 
Oracles,  927  ff. ;    Sibylline,  Jewish, 

939  f-        n 

Ordeals,  308,  924  f. 

Order,  Chinese  stress  on,  747 

Organization,  churchly,  Hindu  ap- 
proach to,  1 1 18  ;  nontotemic,  526; 
religious,  Jewish  capacity  for,  995 ; 
social,  of  animals,  242  ;  theistic, 
Greek,  997 

Osiris,  death  of,  283;  myth  of,  958; 
mythical  biography  of,  728 

Paintings,  totemic,  117 


Palmistry,  917 
Pan,  development  of,  773  f. 
Panbabylonianism,  866  f. 
Pantheism,    ethical,    difficulties    of, 

1005 ;   Hindu,  705 
Pantheon,     Greek,    767  ;      Roman, 

796 ;  Yoruban,  678 
Paradise,  earthly,  835 
Parentalia,  the,  374 
Patriarch,  the,  jealousy  of,  432 
Patron,  divine,  of  individual,  550 
Pausanias,  local  cults  described  by, 

Pele,  nature  of,  890 

Pelews,    the,    theistic    material    of, 

484 

Persecution,  religious,  1163 

Persia,  abstract  gods  of,  763 ;  Bab- 
ism  in,  at  the  present  day,  11 20 

Peru,  cult  of,  compared  with  Chinese, 
993;  functions  of  priests  in,  1075; 
gods  of,  665  ;  negation  of,  relig- 
ious freedom  in,  11 17;  sun-cult 
of,  711 

Pesah,  Hebrew  ceremony  of,  144 

Peter,  Apocalypse  of,  future  punish- 
ment in,  86 

Phallicism,  388  ff. 

Pharmakos,  the,  expulsion  of,  143 

Philo,  allegorical  interpretation  of, 
863 ;  combination  of  Platonism 
and  Judaism  by,  1 104;  description 
of  the  Therapeutae  by,  1124 

Philosophers,  Greek,  attitude  of, 
toward  divination,  941  n.  1  ;  the- 
istic views  of,  iooof. 

Philosophy,  Greek,  not  ecclesiasti- 
cal, 1 104 

Phimosis,  supposed  prevention  of, 

157 
Phoenicia,  deities  of,  764 
Photographs,  suspicion  of,  22  n.  2 
Phratry,  the,  origin  of,  423  f. 
Phrygia,  cults  of,  414 
Piaculum,  the,  origin  and  nature  of, 

1045  f. 
Pig  as  divine  messenger,  1024 
Pillar,  Hermes-,  as  waymark,  296 
Planets,   connection  of,  with   gods, 

715  .       . 

Plants,  history  of  domestication  of, 

564  ff. 
Plato,  description  of  Tartarus  by,  84, 
87 ;    divination    highly    esteemed 


INDEX 


635 


by,  931  ;    function  of  brain,  how- 
regarded  by,  28 

Platonopolis,  a,  proposed,  1104 

Pleiades,  the,  Arab  cult  of,  717; 
savage  observation  of,  216. 

Plouton,  function  of,  780 

Poets,  Greek,  theistic  views  of,  999 

Poles,  house-,  crests  carved  on,  445 

Polygamy,  recognition  of,  by  religion, 
1 163 

Polynesia,  antitotemic  governments 
of,  538 ;  family  the  social  unit  in, 
485  ;  sacredness  of  chiefs  in,  336; 
specialization  of  divine  functions 
in,  65S 

Porphyry,  his  conception  of  sacrifice, 
1037 

Poseidon,  power  of,  771 

Powers,  divine,  coercion  of,  3 

Prajapati,  primacy  of,  730 

Prayer,  animals  approached  by,  125; 
unifying  influence  of,  S80 

Prayers,  difference  of,  from  charms, 
1020 

Pregnancy,  mysterious  nature  of, 
588 

Prepuce,  magical  power  of,  166 

Priest,  relation  of,  to  magician,  893 

Priest,  term,  use  of  in  Christian 
churches,  1080 

Priestesses,  functions  of,  1064 

Priests,  as  diviners,  929  f. ;  as  inter- 
preters of  dreams,  923  ;  moral  in- 
fluence of,  1077  f.  ;  quasi-divine 
authority  of,  203 

Prithivi,  734 

Prohibitions,  civil,  difference  of, 
from  magical,  584 

Prometheus,  victory  of,  over  a  god, 
888 

Promiscuity,  early,  430 ;  whether 
primitive,  180 

Prophet,  the,  excited  by  dance,  1 10  ; 
relation  of,  to  magician,  893 

Proselytes,  Jewish,  influence  of, 
1 108 

Prostitution,  sacred,  1065  ff. 

Psalter,  the  Old  Testament,  moral 
and  religious  tone  of,  1087 

Puberty,  mysteriousness  of,  146 

Purge,  purificatory  power  of,  205 

Purim,  feast  of,  1089 

Puskita  (busk),  the  Creek,  religious 
significance  of,  201 


Pythagoreanism,  traces  of,  in  Essen- 
ism,  1 1 25;   South  Italian,  1098 
Pythia,  the,  moral  influence  of,  927 

Qat,  role  of,  640,  677 
Quetzalcoatl,  myths  of,  847  n.  1 

Rainbow,  the,  no  cult  of,  71S 
Ramadan,  fast  of,  moral  effects  of, 

208 
Rammohun  Roy,  1119 
Raven,  the,  myths  of,  640  n.  2 
Raymi,  feast  of,  321 
Reason,    basis    of    religious    belief, 

Redumption,  element  of,  in  sacrifice, 

104S  ;  senses  of,  1 151 
Reform  Judaism,  racial  character  of, 

"43 

Reincarnation,  55  ff. ;  moral  value 
of,  89  ;  of  ancestor  in  child,  186  ; 
supposed  relation  of,  to  immor- 
tality, 59 

Relationship,  in  blood,  426;  basis 
of  classification,  425 

Religion,  definition  of,  1  ;  adoption 
of  taboo  by,  633  ;  codes  adopted 
by,  n62f. ;  coeval  with  science, 
1;  communal  character  of,  103; 
decoration  used  in,  1 20  f. ;  imper- 
sonal cult  in,  2  ;  influence  of,  on 
ethics,  1 1 65;  influence  of  priest- 
hood in,  1076;  alliance  of,  with 
the  state,  11 17,  11 40;  isolation  of, 
1 137;  pre-animistic,  2  n.  2;  primi- 
tive form  of,  whether  monotheis- 
tic, 9S2  ;  relation  of,  to  magic ; 
relation  of,  to  totemism,  570  ff . ; 
utilitarian  point  of  view  in,  5 

Religions,  classifications  of,  114S; 
higher,  culture-myths  in,  641  ; 
national,  differences  among,  810; 
never  nonethical,  1013;  of  single 
founders,  11 51;  redemptive,  or- 
ganization in,  1059 

"Republic,"  the,  mendicant  prophets 
mentioned  in,  1099  n.  1 

Revelation,  supposed  primitive,  9S2 

Rewards  and  punishments,  as  mo- 
tives, 1 165 

Rhapsodists,  Greek,  S62  n.  1 

Rice,  soul  of,  265  n.  1 

Right-doing,  egoistic  element  in,. 
1 1 70 


636     INTRODUCTION 


TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


Ritual,  development  of,  1055  ;  magi- 
cal, 1057;  origin  of,   15;  relation 
of,  to  myth,  S46 
Roman  Church,  canon  of,  1131 
Rome,  abstract  gods  of,  702  ;  influ- 
ence of  priests  in,   1073;  omens 
in,  912;  specialized  gods  in,668ff.; 
taboo  days  in,  603 ;  unlucky  days 
in,  611 
Romulus,  divinized  founder,  357 
Rules,  ethical,  origin  of,  582 

S^abbath,  Hebrew,  relation  of,  to  full 

moon,  608 
Sacer,  sense  of,  626  n.  9 
Sacra  gentilicia,  1043 
Sacred   books,    study   induced    by, 

"35 
Sacred  flesh,  reconciliation  by  shar- 
ing, 1042 
Sacred  places,  connection  of,  with 

myths,  848 
Sacrifice,  animal,  movement  against, 

1053;    as   gift   to   a  deity,    1040; 

human,  1029  ff.  ;  individual,  1034  ; 

in  marriage  ceremonies,  181  n.  2; 

occasions  of,  1033  ff. ;  purificatory 

power  of,  200 ;  removal  of  taboo 

by,  616;  Vedic,  as  embassy,  1024 
Saint,  the,  function  of,  11 68 
Saints,  as  patrons  of  fertility,  420  ; 

as  rechristened  old  gods,  301 
Sallustius,     philosopher,    faith    of, 

1 1 52  n.  2 
Salvation,  physical  and  moral,  1149 
Sama,  Fijian  god,  48 
Samoa,   divination   in,    911;    taboo 

on  potato  fields  in,  599 
Samson,  solar  interpretation  of,  853 
Sanctions,    supernatural,    how    far 

effective,  1 165 
Sanctity,  Brahmanic,  11 22 
Sancus,    Roman    development    of, 

obscure,  802 
Sankhya  philosophy,  1007 
Satan,  development  of,  689 
Saturn,  history  of,  801 
Saturnalia,  the,  801 
Saturnia  regna,  801 
Saul,  consultation  of  Samuel  by,  927 
Savages,  beliefs  not  formulated  by, 

20;  cultic  discrimination  of,  227; 

ethical    codes    of,    76;     isolated 

groups  of,  103 


Scandinavia,  storm-myths  of,  851 
Science,  primitive,  1,  11 56;  relation 

of,  to  religion,  1 1 54  ff . 
Scriptures,     sacred,     influence     of, 

u34ff. 
Seasons,  agricultural,  solemn,  135 
Secretions,  human,  potency  of,  156 
Self,  the,  doubles  of,  22,  24 
Sen,    reformer,   worshiped   as    god, 

343 
Sentiment,    religious,    alliances    of, 

15 
Senussi,   the,  organization  of,  11 16 

n.  2 
Sequence,  savage  theory  of,  883  ff. 
Serpent,  cult  of,   250,   257  ;  divine, 

in  Genesis,  275 
Servius,  on  bisexual  cult,  411 
Set,  conflict  of,  with  Horus,  726 
Sexes,  the,  animal  patrons  of,  472  ; 

early  separation  of,  1S2 
Shades,  powers  of,  91 
Shaman,  the,  wherein  different  from 

the  priest,  1062 
Shamanism,  661 
Shedu,  the,  character  of,  890 
Shinto,  term,  meaning  of,  750 
Shrines,  oracular,  927 
Siam,  Buddhism  in,  1142 
Siberia,  Big  Grandfather  of,  640 
Sibyls,  933  ff. ;  the  Cumaian,  277 
Signs  manual,  crests  as,  445 
Sikhs,  the,  churchly  form  of,  11 18 
Simplification,  religious,  process  of, 

944 
Siren,  form  of  soul,  25  n.  3 
Skulls,  oracular  responses  by,  192, 

3°9 
Sky,  the,  abode  of  departed  souls, 

64 
Slavery,  recognized  by  religion,  1 163 
Slaves,    slaughter    of,    as    offering, 

1028 
Smith,  W.  R.,  his  theory  of  sacrifice, 

1045  f. 
Sneezing,  ominous   significance   of, 

916 
Societies,  secret,  savage,  174,  1096; 

voluntary,  antitotemic,  529 
Society,  magical,  supposed  origin  of 

totemism,  546 
Socrates,   his    belief   in    divination, 

93 J 
Soil,  fertilization  of,  by  blood,  133 


INDEX 


637 


Solidarity,    tribal,    religious    signifi- 
cance of,  1041 
Solomon,  as  magician,  902  n.  4 
Solstices,  fixing  of  calendars  by,  21 1, 

2I5f. 

Soma,  deification  of,  270 

Songs,  savage,  106 

Sortes  vergilianae,  918 

Soul,  the,  function  of,  in  dreams,  92 1 ; 

as  god,  62  ;  hidden,  31  ;  terms  for, 

21  n.i 
Souls,  number  of,  how  determined, 

42  ;  transmigration  of,  243 
Space,  Endless,  personalized,  703 
Spirit,  definition  of,  100;  guardian, 

adoption   of,  by   individual,    533; 

lying,  sent  by  Yahweh,  922  second 

n.  1  ;  relation  of,  to  soul,  43 
Spirits,  corporeal  nature  of,  140;  how 

different  from  gods,  635  ;  guardian, 

function  of,  504 
Sponsors,  savage,  174  n.  2 
Stability,  offerings  for,  1028 
Statius,    gods    produced    by    fear, 

6  n.  3 
Stigmata,  118  n.  6 
Stonehenge,  296 

Stones,  supposed  to  be  phalli,  400 
Stucken,  astral  theory  of,  866 
Styx,  the,  oath  by,  308 
Substitution,  sacrificial,  1054 
Suffering,  as  expiatory,  104 1 
Suicide,    a,    body    of,    why   feared, 

59° 
Suicide,  effect  of,  on   future  state, 

Sun,  the,  as  old  man,  849;  deifica- 
tion of,  709  ff. 

Sun-gods,  726  f.,  730,  753,  797,  972 

Swan-maiden,  the,  243 

Swoon,  produced  by  withdrawal  of 
soul,  29 

Systems, philosophical, not  churches, 
1 102  ;  religious,  groups  of,  944 

Taboo,  conflict  of,  with  morality, 
632  ;  infection  of,  586 

Taboos,  priestly,  1063;  rearrange- 
ment of,  149 

Tales,  fairy,  881 

Tame,  Hebrew,  significance  of.  626 

Tammuz.  cult  of,  not  a  mystery,  1 100; 
mourning  for,  959  n.  5 ;  relation 
of,  to  Adonis,  271 ;  to  Ishtar,  1066 


Tanit,  410,  764 

7'cio,  meaning  of,  749 

Taoism,  how  made  a  religion,  11 03 

Tari,  Khond,  as  opponent  of  sun-god, 

972 
Tarsus,    seat   of   Mithraic   worship, 

1 101 
Tartarus,  punishments  in,  84 
Tattoo,  religious  significance  of,  1  i<>, 

72 
Taylor,  Jeremy,  his  view  of  prayer, 

12011.3 
Teknonymy,  origin  of,  187 
Telugus,    the,    Christianization    of, 

1144 
Temenos,  sanctity  of,  1082 
Temple,  the,  development  of,  io83ff. 
Temples,  called  mountains,  305  n.  1  ; 

fire-,  Persian,  320 
Teraphim,  nature  of,  1092 
Terrors,    supernatural,    devised    by 

clan-leaders,  150 
Testament,    New,    resurrection    in, 

90 
Thanksgiving,  by  sacrifice,  1033 
Theism,  Semitic  and  Indo-European, 

8ioff. 
Thesmophoria,  the,  sadness  in,  221 
Things,  nonhuman,  future  existence 

of,  97 
Thousand  and   One    Nights,   magi- 
cians in,  902 
Thrace,  orgiastic  cults  derived  from, 

1101 
Threshold,  sacredness  of  236 
Thugs,  the,  piety  of,  693 
Tkumos,  the,  character  of,  in  Homer, 

43 
Thunder-bird,  the,  334 
Tiamat,   conquest   of,   6S6 ;   cosmo- 

gonic  function  of,  316 
Tibet,  Buddhism  in,  1142 
Tiele,  C.  P.,  his  theory  of  sacrifice, 

1051  f. 
Tierra  del  Fuego,  social  and  religious 

organization  in,  13 
Time,  divinization  of,  698,  70311.6; 

Endless,  703 
Tistrya,  divine  character  of,  718 
Titans,  the,   war  of,  against    Zeus, 

974 
Tobacco,  food  offered  to  gods,  1025 
Todas,  the,  buffalo-ritual  of,   1056; 

dairy  fire  of,  321;    dairymen    of, 


638      INTRODUCTION  TO  HISTORY  OF  RELIGIONS 


337;  diviners  of,  929;  taboo  days 
of,  604 
Tooth,  knocking  out  of,  151 
Totem,  the,  not  a  god,  559 ;  sacra- 
mental eating  of,  579 
Totemism,    beginnings    of,    561  f . ; 
coalescence  of,  with  tree-worship, 
273  ;  definition  of,  463,  520  f. 
Totems,  artificial,  origin  of,  463  n.  2 
Traducianism,  37 
Triad,  Babylonian,  757 
Trinity,  the,  doctrine  of,  1002 
Turtle,  the,  cult  of,  257;  use  of,  as 

messenger,  1024 
Twins,  presage  of  misfortune,  913 
Tylor,  E.  B.,  mythical  theory  of,  877 

Unclean,  meaning  of,  in  Old  Testa- 
ment, 38 

Underworld,  the,  ethical  conceptions 
of,  80;  gods  of,  680  ff. ;  Plato's 
construction  of,  87  ;  separation  in, 
between  good  and  bad,  81  f. 

Union  with  God,  idea  of,  moral  in- 
fluence of,  1054 

Unitary  view  of  divine  control,  1149 

Unity,  religious,  basis  of,  11 47  ;  sav- 
age and  civilized,  n  52 

Universality,  religious,  test  of,  1141 

Universe,  perfectness  of,  how  held 
to  be  implied,  1 173 

Upanishads,  the,  produced  no  de- 
votional organization,  1103 

Urim  and  thummim,  nature  of,  918 

Uzza,  A1-,  not  star-god,  717 

Vampire,  the,  88 

Varro,  abode  assigned  the  dead  by, 
85  n.  6 

Varuna,  comparison  of.  with  Iranian 
Ahura,  991  ;  nature  of,  730 

Vastoshpati,  672 

Veda,  the,  local  deities  in,  651  ;  tree- 
spirits  in,  278 

Veddas,  the,  social  and  religious  or- 
ganization of,  13 

Vegetation,  as  source  of  myths,  55; 
Osiris  as  deity  of,  728 

Venus,  development  of,  808  f. ;  the 
bearded,  408 

Vesta,  origin  of,  805 

Vestalia,  the,  sadness  in,  221 

Vetala,  original  character  of,  645 

Victory  as  god,  origin  of,  696 


Vishnu,  history  of,  733 
Volcanus,  origin  of,  obscure,  802 
Voltaire,  the  "  Candide  "  of,  11 73  n. 

Wakes,  Irish,  origin  of,  364 

War,  future  of  those  killed  in,  75; 
sacrifices  in,  1035 

Water,  substitutes  for,  in  purificatory 
ceremonies,  199 

Waters,  sacred,  306  ff. 

Week,  the  seven-day,  607,  610 

Werwolf,  the,  243 

Wicked,  the,  annihilation  of,  52 

Winds,  whether  divinized,  326  f. 

Wisdom  of  Solomon,  the  Devil  in, 
689 

Witches,  Thessalian,  895 

Wives,  slaughter  of,  as  offering,  1028 

Wollunqua,  the,  unique  kind  of 
totem,  576 

Woman,  magical  dread  of,  592 

Women,  alleged  early  scarcity  of, 
430;  devotion  of,  to  cult  of  linga, 
394;  exclusion  of,  from  ceremo- 
nies, 592  ;  favored  by  Therapeu- 
tae,  1 1 24;  honor  shown  to,  after 
death,  370 ;  magical  power  of, 
895  f . ;  of  Baganda,  economic 
function  of,  461 

Word  "church,"  larger  sense  of, 
1 1 12 

World,  the,  future  destruction  of, 
836  ;  relation  of,  to  God,  1 1 59  ; 
savage  conception  of  unity  of, 
885  f. 

Worship,  forms  of,  1081  ff. ;  phallic, 
whether  connected  with  circum- 
cision, 1 58  ;  practically  universal, 
1017 

Xanthus,  the,  river  or  god  in  the 
Iliad,  312 

Yacna  xvii,  conception  of  worship 

in,  320 
Yahweh,      development     of,     765 ; 

dreams  sent  by,  922  ;    early  cult 

of,    649 ;     pillars    of    temple    of, 

299 
Yama,  history  of,  735  ff. 
Year,  sabbatic,  Hebrew,  622 
Yeast,  prohibition  of,  265  n.  1 
Yezidis,    the,    attitude    of,    toward 

Satan,  693 


INDEX  639 

Yggdrasil,  nature  of,  276  Zeus,  76S  f.  ;  dream  sent  by,  922 

Vima,  735  Zikkurat  (Ziggurat),  the,  Babylonian 
Yoni,  the,  veneration  of,  406  and  Assyrian,  1086 

Yoruba,  gods  of,  660;  rebellion  in,  Zodiac,  signs  of,  cult  of,  716 

against  old  custom,  628  Zoroaster,  745  ;    verses  ascribed  to, 

1132 

Zealand,  New. cosmology  of,  67911. 4;  Zoroastrianism,  pre-Sassanian,  1109 

despotism  of  taboo  in,  621 ;  plant-  Zuni,  the,  economic  ceremonies  of, 

ing-taboos  in,  599  497 


Princeton 


Theological  Seminary  Libraries 


1      1 


012  01248  4350 


Date  Due 

BE  1  fe  '49 

%) 

// 


/ST 


